


all these roads, they have to lead somewhere (we hit the ground running)

by LucyInTheSky (WishingTree)



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: F/F, Gen, just let her go fight something instead she's good at that, look guys trini's barely keeping it together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-10-30 21:03:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10884891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishingTree/pseuds/LucyInTheSky
Summary: Trini’s a bit of a disaster, but she’s trying. Truly.In which Trini tries to adjust to having friends, and Kimberly Hart keeps touching her.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hah, this was supposed to be a oneshot but I broke it up because I couldn’t justify posting it like that to myself.  
> It's at least three times longer than it was supposed to be, and took at least eight times longer to write than I meant it to.
> 
> Anyways! Greetings from your resident piece of garbage. My lame ass brain has turned into a walking ad for executive dysfunction, and though I haven't been able to write anything in a year, this is what finally gets scraped together and finished. Not any of my other wips, not the short and sweet little drabble I was going for, but this ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
>    
> So anyways power rangers is the only source of happiness in my life and I hope this doesn’t suck!

 

Kimberly Hart is touchy.

That’s the first thing Trini learns about her after they deal with the whole protect-the-crystal-save-the-world thing. Kimberly Hart is very touchy, probably the most tactile person Trini has ever been around for an extended period of time, and it’s very likely that that’s going to cause some problems for her.

Of course, she’d already distantly recognized the fact somewhere in the back of her mind, but they were preoccupied with stopping Rita and saving the town. They’re all relieved to be able to relax again, even though they're still going to the mine to train almost every day. The difference now is that the treks to and from the ship will sometimes take them through winding trails up on the cliffs, or to the calm pool Kimberly shows them. Now there’s ice cream after, or invitations to movie nights, or offers to just hang out and do homework. 

They’ve proven they can all do the Ranger thing, and now it’s time to prove they can do the friendship thing.

What Trini learns, when it comes to Kimberly, is that apparently the friendship thing involves casual physical contact. All the time. Trini doesn’t know which is harder to adjust to.

She’s pretty sure it’s not the superpowers.

The only people close enough to her that she’ll willingly accept any sort of contact from are her brothers, and now the other Power Rangers have busted their way into that category as well. It’s different for Trini to have people that _want_  to hang out with her, who will sit down and lean into her shoulder, who regularly distribute high fives and fist bumps, who will squeeze her arm to get her attention. Zack will smack her on the back in congratulations when she pulls off something cool in training, and Billy will prod her with his pencils when he has something to show her. Jason offered her a piggyback ride down from the mines once, which had lead to a doubles race through the woods and a five-person dogpile on the ground next to Kimberly’s car.

She’s pretty sure she's gotten more hugs in the last couple months than in the rest of her life combined.

And for Trini, someone who’s basically had no friends since forever, it’s a lot to handle. She’s gone from spending every day alone and dodging bullies to voluntary team bonding and sleepovers. She thinks it’s warranted if it takes her a bit of time to get used to it.

Although, as novel as her interactions with the guys feel, they have absolutely nothing on Kimberly, who has taken this to a completely different level, all on her own.

Casual contact comes easy to Kimberly. Her fingers brush Trini’s arm, or her elbow nudges Trini in the side, or she touches Trini’s back while moving around her in the Pit. She’ll knock her foot playfully against Trini’s while they’re eating or doing homework, and reach out absentmindedly to fix Trini’s hair if she sees a piece out of place.

The first time Kimberly had thrown her arm around Trini’s shoulders as they were walking, head thrown back in a laugh, Trini had let out an embarrassingly high-pitched squeak, one that she had barely managed to cover up with a cough.

While walking through the Angel Grove Mall one exceptionally crowded Friday afternoon, Kimberly had dramatically declared that Trini would get lost in the crowd because she was so short and Kimberly would never find her again, and her solution was to hold Trini’s hand the whole time. Trini had promptly dropped her coffee all over her shoes, and then stumbled into a decorative flowerpot.

Kimberly hugged her goodbye once before dashing off to class, and Trini walked right into her open locker door, leaving a dent the shape of her forehead.

The list goes on, but Trini tries not to remember the numerous ways she’s embarrassed herself.

It’s very simple. All she has to do is stop these _feelings_  that happen around Kimberly from getting in the way of living her new life filled with friends, and she’s determined to make it work. They’re distracting, sure, but she can handle it. Absolutely.

In fact, all things considered, she thinks she’s handling this whole situation pretty well, thank you very much. Both the powers and the… Kimberly.

Yes. Right.

… Absolutely.

 

 

They’re in the Pit again, fighting simulation putties for lack of a new enemy to practice against, and Trini’s sitting on the side waiting for her turn. She’s so absorbed with staring at the back of Kimberly’s head that she misses the warning shouts, and stray debris from a destroyed putty slams right into the back of her head.

It knocks her off the rock she’s perched on, and when she winds up facedown on the cave floor, she groans and decides to stay there for a bit. Why not.

Except now Kimberly is rushing over to help her up, fussing over her with worried hands, and, well. That just made it worse.

 

 

\-----

 

 

Trini jumps when she walks into her room and sees Kimberly sitting cross-legged on her bed, almost choking on the spoonful of ice cream she has in her mouth.

“Hey, it’s just me,” Kimberly holds her hands up, as if she hadn’t just appeared in the time it had taken Trini to go downstairs and grab a snack, and Trini should totally have been expecting her. “Sorry, I climbed in through your window. Wasn’t sure if you wanted your parents seeing me.”

“It’s cool, I’m the only one here. They took my brothers to soccer.”

Kimberly nods, kicking her feet out and smiling at her. “You look very comfy.”

Spoon still hanging out of her mouth, Trini looks down at her old sweatpants and faded yellow t-shirt, then up at Kimberly’s standard attractive combination of jeans and a tank top. She pulls the spoon out of her mouth, but decides not to attempt responding, because she’s pretty sure she’ll start stuttering.

“Shut up,” she rolls her eyes instead and sticks the spoon back into the pint of ice cream, handing it to Kimberly as she goes to close her window and does her best not to react to the pleased sound Kimberly makes as she digs in. “Did you need something or is this just a new habit of yours?”

“I didn’t want to stay at home, and you weren’t answering your texts so I figured I’d stop by and see what you were up to.”

“Right. Sorry,” Trini moves over to her desk where she’d left her phone to charge, picking it up and swiping it open. “Dude, you only waited 7 minutes before giving up?”

Kimberly shrugs, grinning around the spoon in her mouth, “I guess I really wanted to see you.”

Trini’s finger slips on the screen, abruptly closing her texts, and she tilts her head down to hide her surprised smile. Shaking her head, she stays standing next to her desk, opening twitter just for something to scroll through. “Alright, loser, you’re here now, what do you want to do?”

Kimberly shrugs again, turning her attention to the ice cream, and Trini has no doubt she’s digging out the chunks of cookie dough. “Eh, whatever’s fine. Were you doing something?”

“Just watching Netflix. You can pick something if you like.” She points at her laptop behind Kimberly on the bed, and Kimberly nods enthusiastically, holding the ice cream on one knee as she reaches back for it.

Trini chuckles and looks down, leaning her hip against her desk and idly tapping through the different feeds when something catches her attention. Straightening up, she skims the page before opening a new search window, quickly scanning through the results.

Getting absorbed in her task, she doesn’t hear the bed creak as Kimberly gets up, or walks over to her. Trini startles when an arm slides around her waist, her hand tightening dangerously on her phone, but the familiar touch dispels her panic before it can fully form.

“Whatcha got there?” It’s Kimberly’s voice in her ear, and Trini loosens her grip on her phone before the plastic can crack. Kimberly hooks her chin on Trini’s shoulder, looking down, and Trini appreciates that she doesn’t mention the way Trini’s entire body has seized up at the contact.

Kimberly’s touch is gentle, hand resting lightly on her hip. Her breathing is quiet, and somehow her presence isn’t smothering Trini like anyone else’s would be this close, although feeling Kimberly’s body behind her is a different type of distraction. Trini’s mind whirls all over the place, and she tries desperately to channel her best impersonation of a calm person, the one she uses to look unaffected. She does yoga. It has to be good for something.

After what might be years, Trini gets herself to slowly relax, unlocking her muscles and incrementally leaning her body back into Kimberly’s. Surprisingly, this seems to be what Kimberly’s waiting for, because Trini feels her smile into her hair and give her a reassuring squeeze before dropping her weight more fully against Trini’s back.

Exhaling, Trini clutches the hem of her t-shirt, needing to hold on to something. “We’ve got a fan page,” Trini says, showing Kimberly her phone.

Kimberly makes an interested noise, bringing her other hand up and around Trini’s other side, bracketing her in while using a finger to scroll through the page.

There’s a collection of shaky photos and videos, some of their Zords and some of the Rangers themselves from when they’d gotten out to try and stabilize some of the damage on the ground after getting rid of Rita. Trini’s kind of impressed people managed to get half-decent pictures while the town was under siege and they were all presumably running for their lives. Either that, or they were morons who decided getting shots of the fight was a higher priority, and then Trini wasn’t impressed at all.

“We do photograph well, I’ll give us that,” Kimberly flips her hair dramatically and starts to scroll through the comments. “Wish there were some badass action shots of us fighting or something though.” She sees the page dedicated to speculation about their identities and her eyes widen in delight at the theories. “Do you think people could actually figure out who we are?”

“A solid bunch of people seem to think we’re aliens, actually. That – the Power Rangers are aliens. Also, did we like broadcast a name? How do people know that’s what we’re called?”

“Huh, you’re right. We should bring that up to Alpha.” She plucks the phone out of Trini’s hand and bounces back over to the bed, dropping down and patting the covers next to her, “Might as well sit down for this! I bet you the Pink Ranger has more fans then the Yellow Ranger,” she wiggles her eyebrows teasingly.

“Oh, I see how it is,” Trini narrows her eyes at Kimberly’s face, moving to grab her laptop from where she had abandoned it earlier and sitting next to her, “However, unlike you, I’m going through this so I can tell Jason the internet thinks we’re all cooler than the Red Ranger.”

Kimberly laughs, tucking her hair behind her ear, “Alright, alright. We should definitely bring this up to Alpha though. If social media’s gonna be all over us, we need to make sure we stay on top of it.” She scoots back farther onto the bed, flopping onto her side so she can reach the melting pint of ice cream on Trini’s nightstand. Rolling over onto her stomach, she beckons for Trini to lie down too, waiting for her to set the laptop down on the bed and stretch out before passing her the ice cream.

Trini opens the laptop and props herself up on her elbows, taking the spoon again. Next to her, Kimberly looks down and turns her attention back to the phone, but she absently leans to the side, close enough to press their arms together.

Reading the comments, Trini doesn’t know whether she should be offended or amused about what some of these people think of the Power Rangers. Considering it’s the internet, she figures it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a horrifying cesspool, but right now they appear to have fans, real fans, and Trini wonders if they could actually do some good beyond physically stopping Rita and Goldar.

“Hey, check it out!” Kimberly exclaims, “Somebody’s done a personality analysis based on our body language and Zord piloting styles!”

Trini looks over to see a huge amount of text on the phone screen. “Okay, that dedication is impressive. Who has that kind of time?”

Kimberly points at the tab on her laptop that will lead to the same page, and Trini opens it too so they can see it on the bigger screen. “I don’t know, but I’m reading the whole thing, this is great.”

They spend the rest of the afternoon laughing over conspiracy theories and sending the guys both the coolest and the most unflattering pictures they find of them. Even though they lose track of time and are startled by Trini’s family come back, resulting in Kimberly simultaneously rolling off the bed and spilling the leftover melted ice cream all over the floor, Trini counts it as a win.

 

 

\-----

 

 

Trini grumbles as she stares down at the textbook in her lap, wondering if she glares harder at it she’ll miraculously gain the focus she needs to memorise everything. She’s sitting outside with her back against a large boulder near the cliff that hides the entrance to the spaceship at the bottom, grudgingly trying to study for a history test, but the sun is doing little to improve her motivation.

Leaning back and holding the textbook above her head in an attempt to stay alert, she almost has a heart attack when Kimberly comes out of nowhere and flops down next to her, dropping her head into Trini’s lap with no preamble. She’s complaining about sore muscles and late nights, and thankfully doesn’t seem to notice the way Trini fumbles with her textbook in surprise, barely preventing it from falling onto her face, or even worse, Kimberly’s. Trini gets out a fewer stuttering comments, just enough that this can constitute a proper conversation.

Aside from her racing heart, it’s a fairly peaceful day, and gradually Kimberly’s voice trails off as she falls asleep there, head resting on Trini’s legs. Trini has to actively remind herself to keep breathing and stares down at her friend, eyes wide. 

Kimberly's hair is curling slightly as it dries, still damp from jumping through the water, and Trini can just barely feel the strands tickling through the holes in her jeans. There’s a smudge of dirt on Kimberly’s forehead, and without thinking Trini reaches out to wipe it away, freezing as soon as her finger touches her skin and then quickly jerking her hand away. She carefully pulls her arm back and wraps it around her own waist, her breath catching at how soft Kimberly’s skin looks in the sunlight. Trini knows this is already far too sappy, and if she keeps staring it will definitely turn creepy, so she turns unseeing eyes back to her history textbook, wondering belatedly if it’s possible to spontaneously lose her ability to read.

Her debate over the likelihood of suffering a stroke without noticing is interrupted when she senses more than hears the rest of the team jump out of the water at her back. It’s an interesting feeling, but they’ve still been exploring the extent to which the morphing grid connects them.

Something comes flying over the rock towards her and she instinctively drops her textbook to the side, one hand shooting up to catch the projectile and the other held protectively over Kimberly’s head. Throwing things is one of Zack’s favourite ways of announcing himself so she isn’t too surprised, but Trini blinks when she sees that she’s holding a marshmallow. That’s different.

“S’up guys!” he greets loudly as he comes around, but stops and smiles sheepishly when he spots Kimberly. “Whoops.”

Billy and Jason’s greetings are much quieter, and they carefully mover closer to her, trying not to disturb Kimberly who is somehow still fast asleep. It isn’t the first time one of them has fallen asleep in the middle of the day, and it certainly won’t be the last, because they usually need the rest wherever they can get it.

Trini’s hand is still hovering over Kimberly’s head, and she sees that she’s knocked a lock of hair into Kimberly’s face. Hesitantly, she drops her hand down to brush it back, sliding her fingers into her hair and feeling foolish when she remembers how Kimberly had already assured her she liked it when people played with her hair.

Taking a deep breath, Trini shakes herself out of it and looks up at the others, raising an eyebrow when she spots them all holding bags of marshmallows in their arms.

“Uh, where’d you get those?”

Zack grins and wiggles his bag at her. “From the ship. Alpha made them for us.”

“Alpha… made them?” Trini examines the one she’s holding carefully, but as far as she can tell it looks like a normal marshmallow.

“Well, Alpha got the ship to make them,” Zack says this like it should be enough of an answer, but Trini still isn’t following.

“The ship made them?”

Jason laughs, stepping around her. “Yeah, Alpha said it has some kind of… alien… food maker thing? Like it could make artificial food that had the same amount of nutrients as real food for long-term deep space travel?” Jason looks at Billy for confirmation, but Billy misses the look, focused on quietly taking off his sweater and sitting against the rock next to Trini. Jason sits down cross-legged in front of him, while Zack sprawls out on his stomach on Trini’s other side by her feet.

“Alpha was researching humans, and apparently found that we perform better when we’re given encouragement in the form of rewards,” Jason hefts his bag a little, setting down the two extras he's holding on the ground near Trini’s hip, “And that we like food. Hence, marshmallows. Because that was the closest thing to Earth food the ship could make."

“Really?"

“Uh huh. Cool, right?” Zack grins as he tears open his own bag and pops one into his mouth.

“So, these are alien marshmallows.”

“Basically. Yup.”

“Are you sure we can eat them? What if they’re like, toxic to humans or something?”

Zack and Jason exchange a look, and then Jason shrugs at her. “Um, well, Alpha 5 listed what was in them and Billy said it was fine, so we’re probably good.”

Billy nods vigorously at that, offering Trini his bag. “Yeah, they’re basically made of processed sugar. And other types of sugar. Dextrose and tetrasodium pyrophosphate and - ” He starts talking faster, and Trini blinks again when the words get too long for her to understand, but she trusts Billy, so she accepts another marshmallow from him.

“Oh, hey, you have a bag too!” he tells her when he’s done listing ingredients, pointing at the ones Jason put down, “So you can have more later. Because who doesn’t want alien marshmallows?"

Looking closer, she sees that each bag has a ribbon tied around it to hold it closed, corresponding to their Ranger colours, and she can’t stop the smile from spreading across her face at the sight. The unopened bags have a pink ribbon and a yellow ribbon respectively, and Trini tilts her head to read the small printed  _Way to go Rangers!_  on them in black letters. 

Kimberly finally stirs, shifting around and flopping a hand in the direction of the others, now discussing something about the ship. “Shuddup,” she slurs, not opening her eyes as she turns her face into Trini’s stomach and wraps her arm around Trini’s waist, gripping loosely at the back of Trini’s t-shirt. Trini freezes and chokes on her marshmallow, but Kimberly doesn’t move away, her body relaxing into Trini’s again.

She’s distantly aware of Billy apologizing and hushing Jason and Zack, but Trini doesn’t lift her head, watching Kimberly. Her hand is still tangled in Kimberly’s hair, and she smoothes it gently away from her face, her heart flipping into her throat when Kimberly lets out a content hum.

Billy now has a notebook out, scribbling away busily while Jason leans over to watch, occasionally pointing at it and whispering quiet comments. Zack takes off his jacket and lays it across the grass to dry, lying down on his back with his arms crossed behind his head as he settles in for a nap himself. Kimberly dozes on Trini’s lap, and this scene has all the makings of an afternoon of rest and relaxation. Too bad Trini’s heart didn’t get the memo and is instead doing its best imitation of sprinting a marathon.

With Kimberly's new position, there is no natural way for Trini to put her arm down that isn’t lying on top of her somewhere, and Trini stares down with wide eyes, simultaneously hoping Kimberly’s about to open her eyes and sit up, and that she’s already asleep and therefore won’t be getting off Trini anytime soon. 

Tentatively, Trini lowers her arm, her elbow resting over the side of Kimberly’s waist, and forces her muscles to relax as her arm slowly falls around Kimberly’s back to lay her hand against her shoulder blade. Kimberly shifts and Trini holds her breath, but she quickly settles again, and Trini blows out a shaky exhale.

 

 

\-----

 

 

Kimberly drops into the seat next to Trini, distracting her from where she’s carefully aiming a folded up slip of paper at Jason’s head. 

“Please tell me you got the lesson in biology, because I don’t think I understood enough to even do the assignment.”

Trini agrees to the hushed plea easily, which she would have done even if she had no idea what was going on in class just to see Kimberly smile like that.

“Passing him notes about something?” Kimberly nods her head towards the square of paper still in Trini’s hand.

“Oh, no. I’m just…” Trini unfolds the one she’s holding and flips it to show Kimberly both sides are blank. “I’m just shooting them at his head, mostly.”

Kimberly nods sagely as she settles into her chair, pulling her bag into her lap and digging through it. “Rock on.”

She pulls out her notebook, apparently one of the few students planning to actually use the study period for doing homework, and Trini would laugh at the pink cover, except her own is yellow. Trini’s already finished everything due this week, and she can clearly see Jason playing Candy Crush on his phone from two tables over, so this is how she’s spending her time instead.

“Hey, you want to go get coffee after school?” Kimberly whispers as she flips through the notebook pages with a pen between her fingers.

“Sure. Krispy Kreme?”

“You know it.”

Kimberly sets her elbow on the table and leans her head onto her hand, and Trini absolutely does not look at the way the position flexes the muscles in her bicep.

Instead, she busies herself with refolding her paper to flick at Jason. Across the room a fan is whirring, the sound a surprisingly soothing backdrop to the shuffling papers and quiet conversations. Trini leans back crookedly in her chair so she can talk to Kimberly while still angling herself in Jason’s direction, using one hand to guide Kimberly’s attention over her notes, and they start to make their way steadily through the lesson again.

Trini keeps flicking paper at Jason throughout, and she’s really impressed with his patience. All he does is ignore her and brush them off his shoulders, and he hasn’t even thrown one back yet.

Kimberly taps her pen idly against her chin, and for some reason, when she opens her mouth Trini really doesn’t expect to hear a terrible pickup line. Except that is what she gets, and Trini thinks she should be a bit better prepared for this kind of stuff from Kimberly by now.

“Wait, I got it, I know this one! If I was an enzyme, I’d be DNA helicase, so I could unzip your genes,” she says it casually, and Trini’s shot goes wide, completely missing Jason and flying towards the other side of the room. They both hastily duck down and pretend they don’t notice the sound of something crashing to the floor, and as Kimberly grips Trini’s hand with a mischievous smile, Trini pretends she doesn’t want to bury her head in her textbook until her heart stops doing jumping jacks.

She’d like to believe she’s successful.

She knows she’s not.

 

 

\-----

 

 

Trini knows she was acting off in Saturday detention, and she knows the others noticed because they kept shooting her weird looks, but she didn’t think anyone would actually do something in response to it.

The instant the teacher dismisses them, she’s out of her seat and darting up the stairs, leaving the other Rangers huddled around in their usual post-detention conference, intending to get out of the school before they can decide on anything.

It doesn’t work, and Kimberly catches up to her just as she goes through the front doors, her boots skidding on the linoleum and then almost tripping over the doorjamb in her haste to get in front of Trini.

“Hey, wait up!” Her arms are spread for balance, and Trini stops as Kimberly regains her footing, flipping her hair out of her face. “Is something wrong?"

Trini presses her lips together and holds the straps of her backpack tightly, gaze fixed on the steps behind Kimberly. “Nope. Just gotta get home.”

Kimberly gives her a disbelieving look and opens her mouth again, but Trini shakes her head.

“Leave it, Kim,” Trini says shortly, stepping around her, but Kimberly follows.

“Look, I just want to make sure you’re okay. You’ve got us a bit worried is all. You were acting weird today.”

The concern in her voice is enough to stop Trini out of surprise, and Trini stares at her, forehead creased as Kimberly keeps talking.

“If there’s something up, you can totally talk to me, or any of us, I just want to make sure you know. I get it if you want to be alone, that’s fine, but you don’t have to go ghost on us, okay? If you want to talk, or fight, or, I don’t know, watch a stupid movie or just sit in the dark, I got you.” She nods assuredly, watching Trini with a sincere expression on her face, and Trini has no idea what’s going on.

It feels like her brain has stopped working, and Trini brings up her hands to adjust her beanie just for something to do, pulling it down lower over her ears and as close to her eyes as possible.

Would talking about it help? Trini can’t remember ever having somebody around to listen. But she realizes something in her yearns to share, a desire she buried a long time ago, and _god_ is that inconvenient.

Kimberly must see something in her face, because she makes a small encouraging noise and leans her hip against the concrete ledge that borders the steps even as Trini shakes her head.

“It’s stupid, it’s nothing. Forget it,” Trini mutters, trying to keep her face blank as she turns to walk away.

“Hey, no. Come on, it’s okay,” Kimberly catches her with a gentle hand on her elbow, the light press of fingers slowly guiding her back around to face her. “It doesn’t seem like something stupid,” she ducks her head to meet Trini’s eyes, "And hey, even if it is, I hang out with you guys all day. I’m used to stupid.”

Trini lets out an amused huff at that, and Kimberly does a little bounce, clearly pleased with the reaction. Trini gives her a half smile as she finally lifts her head from the floor, letting her gaze wander around and blinking in surprise when she spots the boys at the other end of the parking lot, leaning against Jason’s newly repaired truck. Jason lifts a hand and Billy waves when they see her looking while Zack gives her two thumbs up, and only then do they turn to leave, piling over each other to get into the truck. 

Trini furrows her brow as she watches them drive away. She had come out the front door of the school because everyone always left by one of the side entrances, closer to the classroom where detention was held. Nobody ever bothered to walk to the opposite end of the school just to leave by the front.

She looks at Kimberly in confusion, but she’s already settled back against the stone, tilting her head towards her.

“You want to talk to me now?”

Her voice is so soft, earnest with no pressure behind the words, and Trini stares at her shoes. She wishes she could just talk like a normal person, take whatever these bullshit feelings were and turn them into words that would actually explain something, but she doesn’t know how. She’s not sure she ever did. Scuffing her toes against the ground, she shakes her head again, unable to raise it high enough to meet Kimberly’s eyes.

“That’s what they want,” she forces the sentence out, trying to unclench her jaw.

“Hm?” Kimberly leans forward a little bit, and Trini shoves her hands into her jacket pockets, still not looking up properly. Kimberly’s shirt is made of some flowy pink material, the softness offset by her leather jacket, but she’s got an ink stain near the hem, dark blue. Trini stares at it hard, wondering if Kimberly knows it’s there. It’s shaped vaguely like a lighting bolt, and Trini bites the inside of her cheek.

“My parents. They always want me to talk.”

Kimberly waits, as patient as Trini has ever seen her, and Trini feels her eyes start to burn.

“But – they never listen to what I say,” she shakes her head again, turning to stare blindly at the mountains in the distance, marking the boundary of Angel Grove. “They don’t _care_ about anything I have to say, because it’s never what they want to hear.”

It’s true, but it’s also more than that, and Trini knows it. And so does Kimberly.

Trini opens her mouth, but then closes it again, swallowing and taking her hands out of her pockets so she can pick at her sleeves. Her chest is getting tighter, and she doesn’t know how to do this. 

“They want to talk, but they just – they don’t care, so I don’t know why they keep _asking_ , and I – ” Trini is horrified to hear her voice crack, immediately clamping her mouth shut and pressing her lips together. 

Kimberly makes a reassuring noise, and Trini takes a shuddering breath, mildly alarmed at how much this is affecting her.

“I don’t – ” Trini exhales sharply, frustrated and clenching her hands into fists. “God, it sounds even stupider out loud. Like, how pathetic can I be?” She presses one fist to her forehead and squeezes her eyes shut, but all she can hear is her pulse pounding in her ears. Beyond that, the leaves are rustling in the breeze and the distant sound of cars is interspersed with muffled voices she can’t understand, and in the middle of it – 

Kimberly shushes her gently, pulling her hand away from her face and holding it lightly between her own, one hand wrapped around Trini’s wrist and the other stroking across her knuckles soothingly. Trini tries to keep her breathing even as her focus zeroes in on the points of contact, Kimberly’s fingers warm on Trini’s surprisingly clammy ones. Her fingernails are a neatly painted pink, Kimberly having embraced her colour scheme, and some faraway part of Trini wonders if she’s imagining the wave of calm that seems to radiate off of her. It definitely isn’t the usual vibe she gives off.

Kimberly puts a hand on Trini’s cheek, and Trini’s frowns hard, brow furrowing in an attempt to stave off the tears she can feel gathering in her eyes even as she automatically tilts her head into her palm.

She doesn’t know what to do with this feeling on top of the normal crushing hopelessness. She doesn’t know how to deal with someone… caring, and she hates it. Usually she’d just keep away from her house as much as possible, play her harshest music to try and drown out the gaping nothingness until she reached the version of forced calm she needed to cope with her parents. How is somebody supposed to react to this?

Kimberly’s hand moves to her shoulder and then she's pulled in for a tight hug, Kimberly wrapping both arms around her. Trini’s breathing stutters again, her face tucked securely in the crook of Kimberly’s neck. The material of her jacket is smooth, and the ends of her short hair are brushing against Trini’s face, just light enough not to tickle.

Kimberly hums quietly, pressing her cheek against the side of Trini’s head. “It’s not stupid, Trini. And you’re not pathetic.”

Trini stands frozen, but Kimberly doesn’t let go, rubbing her back with one hand. After a beat, Trini cautiously relaxes into her hold, only now realizing that her body seems to be trembling.

She can feel Kimberly’s heartbeat, calm and steady, and beneath that, the same roaring of energy from the morphing grid that runs through Trini, rushing through them and reaching out, their armour somehow singing through their veins.

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, her body sinking so naturally into Kimberly’s she’d be completely disoriented by it in any other situation, and then belatedly hopes that Kimberly didn’t feel her heart jump. Kimberly smells better than any person has a right to, although Trini wouldn’t be able to identify what it was if her life depended on it. 

She wants to hug back, but her hands are gripping at the front of Kimberly’s clothes, one clutching the hem of her leather jacket and the other getting tangled in her shirt, so instead she nestles closer, instinctively nudging her nose against the collar of Kimberly’s jacket and hiding her face more completely.

Her head feels… floaty, for lack of a better word, but Trini also feels calmer than she has in weeks. She doesn’t know how long they stay there, but eventually Kimberly shifts. She takes a small step back, close enough to keep her hands on Trini’s arms, and Trini can only stand there, blinking wide eyes up at her.

Somehow Kimberly seems to know that Trini is out of words, because all she does is smile softly at her, and Trini swears she sees stars.

“Okay?” she asks softly, and Trini tilts her head down in an approximation of a nod. Kimberly wraps her arms around her again for another quick hug and then steps back.

“Come on. You want to sleep over tonight? I found this old bunch of Christmas lights in the basement, and they would look _so cool_ in a blanket fort.” Kimberly tangles their fingers together and starts gently tugging Trini down the stairs, and the only thing Trini can do is follow.

 

 

\-----

 


	2. Chapter 2

When the words start to blur together on the page in front of her, Trini lets her arms fall onto the table and slumps forward, dropping her chin on the lab report they’re supposed to be working on. Sitting next to her, Kimberly pats her on the back and looks up from her textbook, open on her knees as she balances her chair back on two legs.

“All good?” she asks, rubbing her back encouragingly.

In answer, Trini groans and turns her head towards Kimberly, giving her what she knows must be a pitiful look.

She’s usually a lot better about this whole schoolwork thing, but she’s tired and hungry and feels like she’s starting to get sick, which is a little weird. Can they still get sick?

Kimberly makes a knowing noise and sets her chair down properly, leaning to get her bag and rummaging through it. “I’ve got an apple and those almond crackers you like. Ooh, and a chocolate bar,” Kimberly looks up, “You want?”

Trini considers it and shrugs, pushing herself up as well. “Sure, if you don’t want it.”

Kimberly only scoffs at that, holding up the apple in one hand and the baggie of crackers in the other, chocolate bar dangling between her fingers. “Please, I’m not five, I know how to share.”

Trini takes the crackers and Kimberly puts the other two back in her bag, setting it on the ground and then reaching her arms out behind her in a stretch. The action causes her shirt to ride up, revealing a strip of skin and a hint of the abs Trini knows she has, and Trini hurriedly turns her gaze to the snack in her lap, fingers fumbling as she tries to open the bag.

Settling back in her seat, Kimberly nudges Trini gently and gives her a smile when she looks up. “Come on, let’s get to it. The faster we finish this, the faster we can go home and take a nap.”

Trini’s heart does a little flip in her chest, a feeling she is now profoundly familiar with, and nods, looking down at the crackers again. She doesn’t ask where Kimberly means by ‘home’.

Kimberly moves her chair closer and sets her textbook down above the handful of papers Trini has spread out, linking her arm through Trini’s so they’re not knocking elbows as she leans towards their homework. Trini exhales and leans up on her forearms, set on finishing this as quickly as possible, but is caught off-guard when Kimberly shifts again. Trini turns and opens her mouth to ask if something was wrong, but then she’s dumbstruck because Kimberly is moving towards her.

She presses a quick kiss to Trini’s cheek, flashes her a bright smile, and then turns back to their homework, already starting to talk about protein synthesis.

Trini hopes Kimberly doesn’t notice that she doesn’t get a single answer right for the rest of the assignment.

 

 

\-----

 

 

Trini swears as she sees the time, rolling herself off the bed and diving for the homework they’d left scattered around the room last night.

“Shit shit – Kimberly!” she hisses, grabbing a pillow and throwing it. “We’re late, we’re gonna miss the bio test!” 

She hears the pillow thump as it hits Kimberly’s face with admittedly more force than was necessary, but Trini’s too busy panicking. The only reason she can get away with _anything_ , the only reason that, while her parents can be pushy and aggravating, she can still get away with her curt answers and silences, is because she keeps her grades up at school. Getting a zero on a test this big would tank her average in this class, and then, forget facing any potential alien attackers coming for the Zeo Crystal, her parents would kill her before they ever got the chance.

She slams all the notebooks shut and stuffs every loose paper she can find into the open folders, heedless of what belongs to who as her other hand scrabbles for her backpack tucked neatly under the desk.

Kimberly is grumbling, buried under the covers and clearly still set on being asleep. “Kim! I’m serious!” Trini says desperately as her hand finally snags the strap of her bag, yanking it over and shoving their school stuff inside. When it’s full she throws the rest into Kimberly’s open bag, sitting at the foot of the bed.

Heart racing, she plants her hands on the ground and pushes herself up off her knees, landing some sort of kick on Kimberly’s foot as she clears the bed to get to her dresser and start tearing through it. She grabs the first set of clothes her hands come in contact with and pulls her pyjama shirt off, swearing again when her hair gets caught in it, effectively tangling the shirt over her head.

Kimberly finally props herself up on her elbows and groans. “What’s with the racket?"

“We’re late!” Trini exclaims as she finally pulls her hair free, balling up the shirt and throwing it at Kimberly, uncaring that she’s now essentially shirtless in front of her. “Come on, hurry up!” 

Kimberly only blinks at her dazedly, mumbling something about still being dreaming, and Trini groans as she gets the new shirt over her head. “What do I have to do to wake you up!” She gets one arm into the shirt and snaps her fingers with her other hand, drawing Kimberly’s sleepy gaze back to her face from wherever it had been listing off to. “I will launch your ass off the highest cliff in the mine if you don’t get up _right_ now.” Trini gets her other arm into the shirt, pulling it down properly while she talks, and she spares a moment to consider that maybe threats of physical violence shouldn’t be her first instinct when trying to get others to do things. Well, she already knew she wasn’t a people person.

Either way, that seems to snap Kim out of it, and her eyes widen with horror when she sees the time on the alarm clock. “Shit, the test!” Kimberly is finally moving, hurriedly throwing off the covers and jumping to her feet.

Distantly, Trini appreciates that her panic about being late seems to be enough for her to hold off the feelings of seeing Kimberly disheveled and in pyjamas climbing out of her bed. They’ve had sleepovers together before, but Trini always makes sure to wake up before Kimberly, or she’ll refuse to get up until after Kimberly does.

Trini finds Kimberly’s pants from last night on the floor as she’s scrambling around looking for any pair of hers, and throws those towards the bed as well. She narrowly avoids slipping on something on the floor and heads to the chair piled with clothes.

She hurriedly pulls on yesterday’s jeans and whirls around to find her jacket, spotting it hanging behind the door and lunging for it. Kimberly is hastily searching through the stuff on Trini’s desk, now wearing pants and her bright pink pyjama shirt, which is progress. 

“I’ve got our phones!” Kimberly calls out as Trini gets her bomber jacket on, and she nods distractedly, heading back to the dresser to open another drawer. Trini takes out two pairs of socks and flings one in Kimberly’s general direction, knowing she’ll be able to catch it, but realizes a second too late that the pair she had just given her were patterned with dancing cartoon penguins, and they were firmly in the category of things she didn’t want Kimberly to know she owned. Kimberly snatches them out of the air, and Trini turns to avoid seeing her smirk, unfolding her own pair.

Unfortunately, Trini trips over something while trying to put them on, and stumbles right into Kimberly. Who was in the process of changing her shirt. Which means that when Trini’s arms shoot out automatically to try and keep her balance, they land on the bare skin of Kimberly’s waist.

Time seems to freeze as her brain short-circuits, but Kimberly only rights her with steady hands on her shoulders, quickly asking her if she’s okay before pulling her shirt over her head.

Trini blinks hard and turns, telling herself to save the freak out for later while scanning the room for anything she’s forgotten. When she doesn’t find anything, she goes back to their bags and zips them up, securing the flaps so the don’t have to chase any flyaway homework.

“Ugh, no, my hair!”

Trini glances over quickly to see Kimberly standing in front of the mirror, now fully dressed but staring at her reflection in dismay. Her hair had still been wet from her shower when they fell asleep, and as a result it’s now a strange sort of uneven fluffiness instead of the styled way it usually falls. Trini thinks it still looks great, because of course Kimberly Hart has attractive bedhead, but they really don’t have time for this.

“Here, put this on,” she tosses her favourite beanie at Kimberly, before grabbing the leather jacket draped over her chair and thrusting that into her arms as well. “Let’s go, let’s go!” Trini picks up both bags and literally pushes Kimberly out the door as Kimberly struggles to get the beanie on her head and her arms into her jacket sleeves.

They rush down the stairs and Kimberly stumbles towards the front door, still trying to put her jacket on. Trini drops the bags next to her before darting into the kitchen to grab some food, knowing they’ll both be hungry by second period, and comes up with a handful of the twins’ peanut-free granola bars. She runs back and skids to a stop in the entryway where Kim has succeeded in putting on both her boots and her jacket, even though the collar is tucked inside out. Kimberly grabs her bag and puts it on while Trini stuffs the granola bars into hers and then crams her feet into her sneakers, not bothering with tightening the laces. She shoulders her own bag before frantically patting herself down. “Wait, I need my - ”

Kimberly holds up her keys in answer, already pulling the door open, and Trini sighs in relief as she grabs them. They rush out and Trini hastily locks the door, and then they both nod and set off at a dead sprint towards the school.

Luckily for them, Ranger abilities come with a slight bit of super speed, and they literally make it to class just as the final bell rings, both of them out of breath and tumbling into each other at the doorway. They get weird looks from, well, everybody, but given the fact that they’ve all gotten worse since becoming Power Rangers, they barely notice.

They hurry to their desks, muttering apologies to the teacher, and Trini exhales as she takes her seat, dropping her bag down and thunking her head on her desk for a moment, trying to calm the adrenaline in her system. When she sits up, she scrounges through her bag and comes up with a pen just as the teacher places the test in front of her, and Trini blows out another forceful breath, nudging her bag under the desk with her foot and pulling her chair in.

Her hands are trembling slightly, more from leftover anxiety than actual nerves about the test, and it’s only when she’s gone through half of it that Trini really starts to calm down, when she realizes she's studied well and actually does know what she’s doing. She takes a deep breath and lets herself relax, her eyes automatically drawn to Kimberly’s seat when she looks up.

Kimberly has fixed the collar of her jacket and the sleeves are pushed up to her elbows, leaving her forearms bare, but something about it is off. Trini stares for a moment, brow furrowed, but then her eyes widen. She’s spent more time than she’d like to admit staring at Kimberly from her seat in the back, and she knows what Kimberly’s leather jackets look like. She knows what it looks like, and this isn’t it, because it seems in their mad rush to get to school Trini had accidentally tossed Kimberly one of her own jackets.

Oh no.

One of Kimberly’s legs is crossed over the other, foot bouncing lightly, and Trini knows underneath her boot she’s wearing a blue sock dotted with dancing penguins. She’s also wearing her beanie, which Trini hadn’t had the chance to appreciate before, but she is definitely fixating on now, because Kimberly Hart in her beanie is something else.

As much as she tries to stop it, Trini’s brain is now distracted from the test for an entirely different reason.

 

After the test they rush to the bathroom to try and sort everything out, passing homework and notebooks back and forth. Kimberly has somehow wound up with the entire contents of Trini’s pencil case except for the singular pen that had been in the outside pocket, while Trini’s bag has three textbooks in it, none of which they actually need for class.

Kimberly pulls Trini’s phone out and hands it to her, letting out a gentle laugh as she taps a finger against Trini’s collarbone, pointing out that her shirt is inside out.

“And here. I figured you’d want these for the rest of the day,” she says, pulling Trini’s headphones from of her bag and holding them out, gesturing for Trini to come closer. Trini’s eyes light up when she sees them and she ducks her head as Kimberly reaches out to fit them around her neck. Kimberly tugs them on properly and moves her hands to pull Trini’s hair free, fingers brushing slowly against the skin of her neck.

Trini feels her breath catch, but at that exact moment the warning bell goes off and Kimberly steps back, picking up her bag and smiling as she promises to see her later. Trini is left standing stock still in the bathroom, feeling the butterflies in her stomach doing backflips, until a group of girls coming in startles her into motion and she grabs her own bag, chastising herself as she hurries to her next class.

 

“So…” Zack comes up to her during their 15-minute break between classes after Trini gets out of math. “I just had history with Kimberly.”

Trini narrows her eyes warningly at him, knowing what’s coming. It was definitely too much to hope that the rest of the team wouldn't notice, but hey, a girl can dream.

At that moment the rest of their teammates arrive, and Trini swallows as she catches sight of Kimberly again, beanie still securely on her head and the ends of her hair sticking out in a ruffled disarray.

Zack lets out a guffaw and Trini tears her eyes away so she can glare at him. Unfortunately, it’s completely ineffective, and it’s Billy giving him a weird look that quiets him more than anything else.

“So did uh, something happen to your clothes?” Jason asks mildly as he casually hikes his shoulder bag higher, but his eyes are crinkling and Trini knows he’s laughing at her too.

Kimberly sways to knock into Trini’s shoulder with her own, smiling, “No, we just overslept is all, bit of a mad rush to get here in time for our bio test.”

“Oh yeah! How’d the test go?” Billy asks her, but Trini doesn’t hear Kimberly’s answer, busy eyeing the other two warily. Zack is beaming with delight, clearly getting a kick out of this, and while Jason’s expression is more constrained, he’s definitely smirking.

“Overslept, huh?”

“I swear to god Zack, if you say one word – ”

He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively at her. “Oh? Like something about sleeping with – ” 

Trini doesn’t let him finish, striking out to punch him in the arm, and when he deflects it with a smug look, she sets her jaw and swings her other hand around as well. He successfully blocks and dodges her flurry of hits, but she stomps hard on his foot and his flinch allows her to land a solid punch on his shoulder. He winces and tries to catch her arm, but now that he’s off balance she has the upper hand and they both know it.

“Okay, okay, I surrender! I won’t say anything else.”

Trini pulls back with a warning look and Zack straightens his jacket, Jason watching them both with an amused look on his face. Billy and Kimberly are looking at them in confusion, but students start moving past them en masse, and they take that as their cue to head to class.

“See you guys at lunch?” Jason checks as he starts to move backwards down the hallway. They all agree, and Zack and Kimberly go in the opposite direction while Trini and Billy head towards their English class.

Trini rakes her hand through her hair and sighs, trying not to think about Kimberly lest her mind wander in the same direction Zack seems to revel in pointing her towards.

“Kimberly’s wearing your jacket and your beanie, and you keep blushing,” Billy states lightly, drawing her attention back to the present. He’s holding his backpack straps as he walks next to her, and Trini can’t stop herself from blushing again at his words. “Is something going on?”

It’s only as he’s looking at her earnestly, not a hint of malice on his face, that Trini realizes she doesn’t need to be that defensive with these guys. Her team. Her friends.

“I… no. No, not really. I’m not sure, Billy. She doesn’t – I don’t think so.”

He looks confused, moving his eyes like he does when he’s trying to figure out what he thinks should be obvious but doesn’t quite understand, and Trini waves a hand to reassure him that it isn’t important. “I promise I’ll tell you if something does happen, okay?”

“Okay,” he smiles at her readily, gratefully nodding his head, and bounces once onto his toes. “You want to see something cool?”

Trini nods and he grins excitedly, swinging his backpack around so he can open it and show her what’s inside. It’s a neat bunch of wires connected to some kind of casing, and Trini pales a little at the sight.

“Is that another bomb?” she asks weakly, looking around to see if anyone is paying attention to them. The last thing they need is to get busted with explosives on school grounds.

“Well… yes. But look! I think I finally found a way to concentrate the blast radius, which means that next time we need to clear out some part of the mine it’ll be so much easier.”

“That’s really awesome, Billy,” Trini says, and she does means it, “But maybe no more bombs here? We should probably keep this to the quarry, I think you’ve blown up enough school property for the year.”

Billy widens his eyes at her. “I told them it was an accident!”

 

 

\-----

 


	3. Chapter 3

A horde of putties spring up one day after school, remnants of Rita’s magic still coursing through the ground, but luckily they're concentrated in the abandoned gold mine. This means two things: the Rangers don’t have to worry about protecting civilians, and they get to break out the Zords. 

Trini’s having a pretty good day.

“Whoo!” Billy cheers as he crashes his triceratops into the last bunch of putties, crumbling them to pieces. “Guys, I know I’ve said it before, but these are so awesome!”

Jason’s T. rex turns towards them, flicking its tail and shaking its head. “Alright guys, good job! Let’s start heading back to the ship to park the Zords.”

“Aw, come on dude, let’s have some fun first! We never get to use the Zords!” Zack guides his mastodon over to Jason’s T. rex and does what looks like the Zord equivalent of elbowing him in the side, which results in a grating clang as the metal scrapes together.

Trini laughs, rearing her saber-toothed tiger up on its hind legs and dropping down again with a slam, delighting in the impressive cloud of dust it kicks up. “Come on boss, you know you want to. We still don’t really know what these can do, and we could probably use the practice too.” 

Trini looks at all the buttons on her control panel with interest and picks a random one, pressing it just to see what’ll happen. A wide screen pops up in front of her, a whole new set of controls appearing, and there’s a rumbling as her Zord shifts. She hears a clanking hiss as the plating on her Zord adjusts, seemingly sealing itself to make the whole thing airtight, and Trini lets out a thrilled laugh. “Yo, check it out! We’ve got underwater mode!"

Everybody starts talking over each other at once, chattering excitedly, and Trini knows they’ve started mashing buttons as well. Zack finds something that lights up his whole Zord, powerful spotlights aiming in all directions visible even in the daylight, while Billy uncovers a new pair of missile launchers. Predictably, one gets fired accidentally, but Kimberly manages to shoot it out of the sky before it gets too far.

“Sorry! Didn’t mean to do that!” he exclaims, excitement clear in his voice, and they all laugh.

Eventually they calm down again, tapping buttons to reverse whatever they’ve done, and Kimberly’s pterodactyl flies in loops above them, barrel rolling for the fun of it. "I know our armour links them to us or whatever, but instincts will only take us so far,” Kimberly says, addressing Jason again, "Think of it as a learning experience!”

“Okay, okay,” Jason says, giving in easily with a laugh, “But we have to stay on this side of the mountain. If anyone from town sees us it’s going to make hiding them a whole lot harder.” Trini grins, because it’s obvious he wants to play with the Zords just as much as they do.

“Yes!”

She can hear Zack whooping through their helmet mics as he turns his mastodon towards the flatter plains area farther away from the town, and she laughs along, letting the strides of her saber-toothed tiger lengthen and pulling ahead of him. Billy and Jason move their Zords into action after them, and Trini revels at the sound of their laughter.

Kimberly’s pterodactyl twirls by her, sun glinting off its wings, and Trini keeps grinning, following it with her eyes as it soars high again, doing a complicated turn that ends with it flying upside down.

Admittedly, there are fewer options for the Zords who can’t fly, but they race along, each trying to show each other up with the coolest maneuver. 

The mountain range starts to curve, guiding them along, and Trini smirks as she sees an opening. As awful as their battle against Rita had been, she is glad their first run out had involved them getting pummeled, because now at least they know the Zords can take a beating.

She puts on a burst of speed and then pulls back hard on her controls, her saber-toothed tiger darting ahead of Jason and Zack running next to her. It leaps for the sloping rocks of the cliffside and pushes off, and Trini drags her controls down, flipping her Zord cleanly over their heads. She hears their exclamations echo through her helmet and laughs, sending them a salute when her Zord is upside-down and her cockpit is facing them. They’re cheering as she completes the flip and lands the Zord back on its feet, skidding into a turn and continuing to run behind them as elation surges through her.

A shadow falls over her cockpit, and Trini looks up to see Kimberly flying right above her, waving at her upside-down from within her own Zord. Trini grins, returning the wave and seeing her joy reflected on Kimberly’s face. 

Kimberly glances in front of her before meeting Trini’s eyes again, rapping her knuckles playfully on the glass ceiling of her cockpit before putting her hand back on the controls. She presses a couple of buttons and readjusts her grip before looking back up, and then Kimberly winks at her before rising up and away, sending her Zord back to the sky. 

Trini blinks.

Kimberly Hart  _winked_  at her. 

Trini’s face goes slack, her mouth dropping open, and her brain momentarily blanks on the fact that she’s piloting a massive tiger mecha that could very easily level buildings.

She steers her Zord right into the rock wall of the mountain, and hears Zack howl with laughter.

 

 

\-----

 

 

One Saturday, Jason leaves right after detention to watch his sister, taking Billy and Zack with him, but Kimberly waves down his offer of giving them lifts home, asking Trini if she wants to hang out instead. Trini agrees easily, letting herself get pulled along after they say goodbye to the boys, but she doesn’t understand what Kimberly's so intent on doing.

“Come on, let’s get something to eat. We can go to that little diner on Weston,” Kimberly leads the way to the street, heading down the sidewalk towards the main part of town. She links their arms as they go and Trini is almost used to it by now, but she’s still confused on why Kimberly is suggesting they go to the diner. 

Kimberly almost always tries to stay outside for a while after they get out of detention. She doesn't like being cooped up inside all day, Trini had noted after only a few Saturday detentions with her. She would slowly lose her focus as the day went on, doodling more instead of doing her homework and lightly tapping her feet. Trini can tell that it’s mostly out of boredom, and it’s rarely more than some shifting, but it’s enough to give away the fact that she would rather be moving outside than sitting in a classroom for the whole day. Trini likes being outside because outside means away from people, but Kimberly likes it simply because it’s outside.

“Why?” The wind blows her hair into her own face, and Trini turns her head, spitting the strands out of her mouth.

Kimberly laughs at her, reaching over to help pull her hair loose and flip it out of her face as they keep walking. “You need some proper food, and I know you didn’t eat breakfast.”

With their new Ranger metabolisms, they all eat at least double what they used to, maybe more, which Trini finds incredibly annoying. Getting hungry more often means she has to go down to the kitchen to find food, which means more interaction with her parents.

However, while it’s true she didn’t have breakfast, she still doesn’t understand why Kimberly wants to go for food now. Trini keeps staring at her blankly, trying in vain to see if she’d forgotten something that would explain it, but she comes up empty.

Seeing her look, Kimberly slows down. “Is that – we don’t have to go there if you don’t want to, I know it’s the smaller one. But it’s cozy, you know? I mean, anywhere’s good for me – ”

“No, yeah, that diner is fine, I’m just… You want to go sit down and eat? Inside?”

Kimberly flashes her a curious smile, the teasing glint in her eyes telling Trini that she’s done something particularly amusing. “Yes? Is there a problem with that?”

“You don’t like to stay inside,” Trini says, slow and hesitant, “Especially not after hours in school.”

Now Kimberly is looking at her with a different expression on her face, mouth twisted in something like surprise, and Trini shifts on her feet, resisting the urge to hunch and pull her beanie lower. Maybe that wasn’t a thing she was supposed to notice. Maybe that was one of those things that people acknowledged but never spoke about? 

“Is – is that…? It’s not, I mean, I wasn’t – ” Trini shifts uncertainly as she stutters and inwardly winces. This is why she doesn’t like talking to people.

Kimberly shakes her head. “Sorry, I just – didn’t realize…” She gives an airy laugh and smiles slightly too widely at Trini, and Trini tilts her head, trying to decide if she’s imagining the shock in her voice. “Really, it’s okay. I don’t mind when it’s not a stuffy classroom, I’ll be fine. You don’t eat properly, so we’re going to go fix that.”

Trini focuses on keeping her pace steady, wondering if she looks as off-balance as she feels. Frowning and shaking her head pensively, she looks at Kimberly, brows knitting together. “It’s not that important though. I’ll just grab something when I get home.”

Kimberly only scoffs and keeps them moving, nudging Trini in the side, and Trini knows that she’s made up her mind, and she’s definitely taking them to the diner.

“Okay, let’s get sandwiches,” Trini says, pulling on her backpack straps so her bag rests more comfortably on her back. “We can take them to go and eat them in the park.”

Kimberly goes quiet again at her side, a strangely contemplative look on her face, and Trini bites her lip, glancing at her in her peripheral vision. A breeze blows past them, ruffling Kimberly’s hair around her face, and Trini watches as she distractedly pulls away the piece that gets stuck to her lip, her face clearing again. 

“That’s a great idea,” Kimberly says, tucking her hand in the crook of Trini’s arm and leaning close to knock their shoulders together. A smile stretches involuntarily across Trini’s face and she flushes again, ducking her head and feeling the warmth of Kimberly’s hand seeping through her sleeve, more soothing than the sunlight shining on them.

 

Hours later, after they’ve eaten and spent a couple hours lounging around the park, they’re walking home together, taking the scenic route through the mountain. Trini kicks at a pebble, watching it soar through the air and disappear over the cliff to splash into the pool of water below. The winding path is guiding them along the edge, and she lets the peace of the woods seep into her. Kimberly’s presence next to her is comforting, and they talk easily about whatever comes to mind.

Without skipping a beat, Kimberly reaches out and touches her fingers to the back of Trini’s neck, and it takes Trini a very long second to realize she's tucking in the tag of her shirt that must have been sticking out. Kimberly uses her distraction to steal the rock she was kicking, and Trini huffs but lets her have it, face coloring again when Kimberly smirks at her.

When they’re done complaining about their shared gym teacher and once again lamenting about how they aren’t in the same class, Kimberly sighs and puts a hand on her arm.

“And I meant to say, I’m really sorry.”

Trini automatically takes a step back, away from the ledge and away from Kimberly before she realizes what she's doing.

She blinks down at her own feet, and then looks up to see Kimberly has a startled expression on her face, looking torn between amusement and indignation.

They stare at each other, and Kimberly’s face splits into a wide grin while Trini blushes, though this time she’s not even sure why. If you ask her, it’s a perfectly reasonable reaction given what Kimberly had done last time those words had left her mouth.

“Well, fool me once, right?” Trini finally mumbles, keeping her head down in an attempt to hide her red face behind her hair. Kimberly steps closer to rub her hand up and down Trini’s arm, and Trini’s blush comes back full force.

“Aw, babe, don’t worry, you’re just a little gullible.”

Trini’s pretty sure it isn’t healthy how often her heart stops around Kimberly, but somehow she hasn’t died yet. “Excuse me for not expecting you to pitch me right over the cliff when you asked for some water,” she says flatly.

Kimberly laughs at that, and Trini huffs, rubbing at one of her heated cheeks and willing herself to calm down. Her breath catches yet again when Kimberly reaches out to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, and Trini doesn’t think she’ll ever be calm again.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize – ” Kimberly draws back and wrings her hands together, a guilty scrunch to her shoulders, “Well I know I shouldn’t have done it, but I didn’t know you were that scared, I never would have – ”

Trini shakes her head, waving away Kimberly’s concern.

“No, it’s fine, it’s just… I can’t believe I fell for it.”

Kimberly snorts and quickly claps both hands over her mouth, but her eyes are shining with mirth. Trini sighs and rolls her eyes, narrowing them at her, but Kimberly only lifts her hands in a shrug and smiles tremulously. 

“You… _fell_ for it?” 

There’s a beat of silence, and then Kimberly practically collapses into a fit of laughter as Trini groans. Kimberly falls into Trini’s side as she tries to compose herself and Trini instinctively wraps an arm around her waist to steady her. Trini feels herself flushing _yet again_ , and gives Kimberly a couple moments to pull herself together before righting her and starting to walk again. 

Kimberly falls into step beside her, still giggling as she brushes her hair back, “I’m sorry, but come on! That was a good one, and so easy.”

Trini rolls her eyes again. “Since you aren’t pulling me off a cliff this time, what are you sorry for?”

Kimberly sobers at the question, and Trini regrets asking.

“For getting you caught in the crossfire of Amanda’s mission to make my life a living hell. Although, since you mention it, I’m also sorry for pulling you off the cliff. It wasn’t cool.”

“Eh, it all worked out,” Trini knocks her shoulder against Kimberly’s again, smiling at the way she presses back. 

She knows Kimberly is looking at her with the fond smile on her face, the one that comes out when someone does something she deems exceptionally team spirit-y, and Trini doesn’t know how to respond to that. She really is grateful to Kimberly for pulling her off that cliff, for forcing her into this mess with the rest of them, as odd as that might sound without context.

“I’m still going to get you back for it, by the way,” Trini warns her, hands coming up to clutch at her backpack straps so she doesn’t do something like reach for her hand, or try to kiss her. “Pulling me off the cliff.”

Kimberly nods cheerfully and sends Trini a smile that is far too charming for her to handle. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’m kind of a kickass superhero.” She puts her hands on her hips and strikes a dramatic pose, tilting her chin up and looking to the side out over the cliff, “A warrior never bows to those who only make use of threats.”

She’s pitched her voice comically low, and Trini laughs. “Is that your Zordon impression again?”

Kimberly waits a moment before dropping it. “Yup!” she grins and falls into step beside Trini.

“Dude, it still sucks.”

Kimberly gives an offended gasp and pulls away, pressing a hand to her chest while her face twists in mock horror. “I’ll have you know that hours have gone into perfecting that, including all the first hand exposure from getting lectured by Wall Face, and – yeah, it’s still not good.”

Trini returns her grin and shakes her head. “It’s okay though,” she says instead, changing the subject, “About Amanda. You don’t have to worry. I can handle a couple bullies, trust me.”

“I know you can handle it, but it still sucks. You shouldn’t have to deal with all of that.”

Trini only shrugs, looking down and resuming their game of kicking pebbles off the side of the cliff. She hasn't mentioned her own bullies, and she isn't planning to.

Kimberly distracts her from her thoughts by sticking her foot out to snag the pebble Trini's aiming for, knocking it to the side and then flicking it up with her toes, making a delighted sound when it flies in a high arc and hits the patch of moss growing on the opposite cliffside. 

Trini smiles and casts a sidelong glance at Kimberly, who is enjoying herself way too much for someone just kicking rocks off a cliff. The late afternoon sunshine is glinting off her hair, haloing around her head, her knees are grass-stained from the park, and Trini knows she would gladly deal with Amanda for the rest of her life if it meant being friends with Kimberly. 

At that moment, Kimberly lets out a small cheer at whatever feat she’s pulled off with the rock and spins happily to face Trini, meeting her eyes before Trini can look away. The happiness on her face slowly melts, evolving into something softer, and Trini no longer has any idea what's going on.

Trini’s seen it happen a couple times now, and she isn’t any nearer to understanding it than she was the first time. Occasionally, at completely random times, Kimberly will give her this _look_ , somehow a mix of searching eyes that see right down to her soul and a confusingly fond expression on her face.

And for Trini, who’s been invisible for so long… it’s _terrifying_. She would absolutely be lying if she said it didn’t scare her.

What is she looking for? What is she seeing? What _is_ there for her to see?

Now Trini’s eyes are wide, anxious and unsure about what’s happening except for the fact that she knows she has to find a way to get out of this situation before she embarrasses herself any more.

And because Kimberly is still looking at her like that, Trini panics. And because she panics, she makes a snap decision. And because Trini works _oh so well_  under pressure, her decision is to tackle Kimberly right off the cliff.

Which is exactly what happens.

It isn’t quite what Trini would call an unqualified success, as they plummet towards the pool at the base of the cliffs, but Kimberly’s arms are wrapped around her neck and she’s screaming exuberantly in her ear, laughter being pulled out of her. Trini hugs her closer and shuts her eyes. 

They hit the water together, and Trini lets Kimberly go so they can both swim properly. For a second, she lets herself sink, feeling the rush of water around her and taking the moment to try and gather herself, and then she kicks her way up, gasping when she reaches air.

Kimberly’s head breaks the surface of the water behind her, spluttering a laugh, and Trini is thankful for the cool water on her flushed face. It’s enough to let her regain some semblance of control, and Trini lets the tension bleed out of her shoulders as she instinctively moves closer, laughing at the way her hair is sticking to her face.

Kimberly purposefully splashes at Trini while she treads water, bobbing up and down. “So are we even now?”

“Hmm,” Trini pretends to think about it, casting her eyes towards the sky as she treads water as well, floating closer to Kimberly. “No, not just yet.” She smirks, and then dives towards her without warning.

“No, wait! Trini!” Kimberly shrieks as Trini’s arms close around her waist again, dragging them both underwater. They tumble over each other until their heads break the surface, and when Kimberly tries to push the wet hair out of her face and give Trini an affronted look, Trini only smiles cheekily and pushes her back down with hands on her shoulders. Not one to be outdone, Kimberly manages to hook an arm around Trini’s waist and uses her momentum to pull Trini with her, flipping them both upside-down in the water.

This prompts a water fight that Trini likes to believe she totally won, but it’s a draw at best. After they wear themselves out, Kimberly lets out a happy sigh and tilts backwards, kicking her feet lazily a few times to float on her back. She moves just enough to keep herself afloat, tilting her head to face Trini and flicking a handful of water at her.

Her gaze softens again as she looks at her, and Trini’s heart stutters, causing her to momentarily forget she’s supposed to be treading water. Her chin dips below the surface and she shoots up again, escaping from Kimberly’s gaze by completing the motion and using it to dive back beneath the water.

It’s nice down here. Maybe her Ranger abilities can grow her a pair of gills and she’ll never have to come out again.

Hah. Come out.

She spreads her arms out and turns herself in a slow circle, idly zigzagging deeper into the water. She can see Kimberly floating on the surface, body distorted through the water, and after a moment she turns her gaze away, using both hands to push her hair back and ignoring the way they seem to be trembling again.

She wants… she doesn’t know what she wants, but it has to do with Kimberly, and Trini shakes her head sternly. She wants to swim over to Kimberly and hug her and kiss her and hold her hand, and a whole bunch of other sappy stuff, just like she wants to keep swimming down and hide herself in the spaceship so she doesn’t have to deal with this.

Instead, she blows out the last of her air in a forceful stream of bubbles and kicks her way back to the surface. Copying Kimberly, she lets herself float weightlessly onto her back, both of them moving with the gentle sway of the water. Far above them, the sun is just starting to set, and because of the angle of the cliffs only a few streams of sunlight make it down to the surface of the pool. The light that does make it hits a small section of the water near the middle, and Trini looks over when she feels the warmth on her outstretched arm.

Blinking water out of her eyes, Trini takes in the sight of Kimberly floating peacefully directly in the center of the sunlight, face upturned and radiant with the water glimmering all around her. Trini doesn’t want to look away, but while she’s absorbed with how Kimberly’s hair is spreading out around her head and the water droplets clinging to her face, she doesn’t realize that she's still continuing to float off to the side. She’s given an unpleasant reminder of this when her head knocks against the rocks, and she starts when she abruptly feels the colder temperature of the water in the shadows of the cave, having shifted too far from the sunlight.

At her quiet exclamation of surprise, Kimberly opens her eyes and lifts her head, letting her body sink back underwater so she’s more or less upright. Seeing she has her attention, Trini clears her throat uncertainly. “You ready to head back now?”

Kimberly smiles warmly and nods, glancing up at the sky before looking back to Trini.

“Ready when you are.”

 

 

\-----

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> listen that fell for it pun is one of the most hysterical things I’ve ever thought of I can’t believe I’m not seeing it everywhere


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys, this is a little bit of a filler chapter
> 
> As soon as they release Trini’s last name I’ll change it, but right now it has Kwan. It’s just the placeholder, cause Kwan ain’t her name!

Trini thinks pretty much every part of Kimberly’s existence and general proximity is the hardest thing to deal with, because it _is_ , but then she’s inevitably paired with Kimberly for sparring. And then she remembers, no, _this_ is the worst part of it.

Because as much as she seems to delight in punching Trini in the face, Kimberly is _nice_ , and Kimberly _cares_ , and that means she _pays attention_. And it is unbelievably hard to keep it together and act cool, act like everything is normal, when all of Kimberly’s attention is on her, and all of Trini’s attention is supposed to be on Kimberly, but only like, a normal amount. And also they’re fighting each other. Which means Trini has to actually _do_ things, and do them at the exact right moment in the exact right way, or else Kimberly’s going to notice.

In her head, Trini starts thanking every single deity she can think of for her different self-defense and martial arts classes from all over the goddamn country, because they’ve apparently honed her reflexes enough that her body can still appropriately react to hits flying at her while her mind is very much paralyzed at the sight of Kimberly Hart in a tank top, looking like a badass action hero. It had been fun kicking everyone’s asses at the beginning before they’d learned how to fight with their abilities, but now they’re Trini’s only saving grace when she spars with Kimberly.

So far today, Kimberly has only landed a couple of strong hits that Trini knows she should be very capable of blocking, and Trini’s only fumbled badly twice, resulting in Kimberly taking her down. Now she’s sitting on the side after a turn sparring with Zack, which went much better for her, and to Zack’s credit, he handled her bout of overaggressive determination fairly gracefully, letting her channel some of her off-kilter feelings into physical action. They have a short reprieve until their next training drill, unless they decide to end after this round.

Zack lets himself fall back onto the smooth rock they’re perched on, bending one knee to bring his foot up and letting the other swing over the edge. “Hey, you think it’d be easy to get to the ceiling?”

Trini looks up, following his gaze. “I don’t see why not. We know we can climb.”

“Nah, I think it’d be harder than climbing the cliffs outside.”

“Maybe, but definitely doable,” Trini leans back on her hands, studying the cave walls. Unlike the rocky cliffs outside, these walls are lined with horizontal ridges, closer together and with less indented space to use as hand or foot holds. It leaves barely enough to grip, but Trini’s pretty sure they can gain enough speed to compensate.

“Oh, you think you can get up there?” Zack's voice is relaxed, more contemplative with only a joking challenge, and Trini rolls her head lazily to look at him, answering his playful smirk with one of her own. There’s no real heat behind the words, both of them pleasantly exhausted from their hours of training.

“You saying I can’t?”

Zack quirks an eyebrow at her and opens his mouth to respond, but another voice cuts in.

“Can’t what?”

It’s Kimberly, and Trini’s answer gets caught in her throat when she turns her head, because of course Kimberly is still wearing her tank top, obviously, and she’s all sweaty from sparring with Billy, and Trini is anything but relaxed now.

Trini wants to know why Kimberly can’t take pity on her just once and wear a t-shirt. Just once. Or hey, maybe even a long sleeve, something that would properly cover the rippling muscles in her arms.

“Climb to the top of the cave,” Zack answers for her, and Kimberly tilts her head as she considers it. At that moment, Trini suddenly jumps to her feet, and they both blink in surprise.

“Sure I can. Watch and learn,” she blusters and hurries to the side of the cave, praying it doesn’t look like she’s running away. Which is exactly what she is doing, but she doesn’t want them to know that. She stops with one hand on the wall, staring up calculatingly, and then bends her knees and jumps.

She’s not as fast as Kim – none of them are – but she’s strong, and smart about it. She can see which outcroppings of rock will probably serve as good hand and footholds, and as long as she doesn’t actually hang off of them and just uses them to propel herself upwards, she can get up in no time.

Nearer to the top, the walls become less consistent, pieces sticking out unevenly and disappearing in the shadows, which makes it a little trickier. It’s harder to judge which parts are stable enough to grab, and Trini starts to leap farther, brow furrowed as she tries to quickly tap at the outcroppings as a test before putting her full weight on them. It works decently enough, only a few outcroppings crumbling under her hand and falling down below her in pieces, and Trini’s fairly confident she can make it this way.

Sure enough, she gets high enough to reach out and bump her fist on the ceiling, and looks down triumphantly as she hangs off the wall with one hand. She can see the team below her, their voices distant and echoing, and Zack is waving and cheering loudly. Laughing, she spreads one arm out in an exaggerated sweeping bow, and then hurries to clamber over to another wall when the rock she’s holding shifts under her fingertips.

From her new vantage point, she spots a small ledge, roughly big enough for one person and hidden from sight except from above. She swings herself over and pats at it with her foot, making sure it isn’t loose before climbing on and lying down on her stomach, the space above too small for anything else. It’s quiet up here, and for lying on rock it’s surprisingly comfortable. 

“Trini?” she hears Kimberly’s voice call out. It almost sounds apprehensive, but it’s probably due to the weird acoustics this high up where the sound bounces off the uneven cave walls. “You okay up there?”

Trini sticks her arm out, waving at the four Rangers clustered together on the ground with their faces turned towards her before giving a thumbs up, wondering if they can see that far. “All good! I’m just going to chill here for a bit!” she calls back.

After a beat, Trini sees them pair off, no doubt getting coaxed back into training by Jason. She pulls her head back, wriggling to get comfortable, but the faint sounds of their orderly shuffling are interrupted by an indignant yell and some cackling.

“Hey, Trini! Help a teammate out here?” Zack calls up to her. “I’m being attacked!”

“It’s because you said something stupid, I assume,” she yells back, not bothering to move.

“Now why would you assume that!”

Trini peers over the side of her little nook to assess the situation, and then shrugs as best as she can lying on her stomach. Zack is slowly being backed into a corner, having undoubtedly goaded somebody into a fight, and she grins.

“I’m good,” she yells down again, giggling when Kimberly and Jason charge him, Billy yelling strategy at them and gesticulating widely.

She pulls back again and settles her chin on her crossed forearms, closing her eyes and sighing happily as she smiles at the sounds of what is clearly a losing battle for Zack. There’s actually some kind of breeze up here, which Trini assumes is just the same air circulating through the cave, but it feels nice. Zack’s protests eventually stop echoing off the cave walls, and Trini relaxes even more, wondering if she can get in a quick nap in the silence she’s found.

Sleep has been hard to come by lately, both because of Ranger training combined with keeping up appearances at school, and because of how hard it is for her to fall asleep in her bedroom. It’s lead to her napping in the oddest places, but so far it’s been working well enough.

Unbidden, a yawn overtakes her, and she lays her head down properly on her arms. Her drooping eyes observe the shadows playing off the cave wall, and slowly it all fades into darkness.

 

There are gentle fingers patting her arm, and Trini opens her eyes to see Kimberly’s face in front of hers. Like, right in front. Their noses are almost touching. Trini could probably count her eyelashes, if she tried. Trini forces her gaze away, and a quick glance down confirms that, yup, Kimberly is just casually hanging off the ledge of Trini’s little hidey hole, not concerned in the slightest with what must be at least a 40 foot drop.

“Hey,” Kimberly says, smiling softly, “We’re just about ready to start heading home.” Trini blinks sleepy eyes at her, and Kimberly answers her question before she can ask it. “You’ve been out for a bit over half an hour, I think.”

Trini is extremely grateful she isn’t the one hanging off the cave wall in this situation, because she’s almost certain she’d slip off and plummet to her death, and how embarrassing would _that_ be.

Kimberly finally moves away from Trini’s face, shuffling a little to the side and turning around precariously so her back is pressed to the wall, her other arm stretching out to grasp another rock and keep her balance. “So what’s the plan to get down?”

Trini yawns and wriggles herself closer to the ledge, fully hanging her head over the edge and eying the distance critically. “Huh. I guess climbing down is definitely a bit more awkward than climbing up.”

Kimberly laughs, and Trini turns her head involuntarily, always drawn to the sound. “Did you seriously not consider how you were going to get down before you Spider–manned your way up a cave wall just to prove a point?”

“I… am a superhero. I don’t need to plan for this,” Trini says haughtily, ignoring Kimberly’s knowing look, “Plans are for chumps. Non-powered chumps. Which we most certainly are not.”

Kimberly shuffles a bit farther away to make more room for Trini as she squirms her way off the ledge. “So how’re we doing this then, oh wise one?”

Trini looks down again, trying to spot the outcroppings of rock she’d used to get up here. It would take a lot of time and effort to climb down using them as hand and foot rests again, and Trini doesn’t really want to find the energy to do that.

She swivels her head instead to take in the state of the other walls around them, brushing absentmindedly at her arms to dust off the loose bits of rock and rubble.  Worse comes to worst, they can just morph and let the armor absorb the impact of the jump, but that feels like cheating.

“Well,” Trini takes a deep breath, “I guess we just, you know,” she waves her arm vaguely as she shifts to mirror Kimberly’s position, holding on to the ledge, “Go for it.”

Kimberly mock gasps, eyes playful. “Why, Trini Kwan, I do say you’re sounding more and more reckless every day.”

“Guess you’re finally rubbing off on me,” Trini says flippantly, taking a second to grin at Kimberly one more time before adjusting her grip and turning around. She wiggles the foot she has planted on the small outcropping of rock to make sure it’s stable, then launches herself towards the opposite wall, aiming for another outcrop. Flying through the air, she smacks into the rock as her hands and feet scrabble to find something to catch on to as she slides down alarmingly fast. Her hands are scraping down the stone wall in a way that would have hurt much more without her new abilities, and when she manages to catch herself, she gives a devilish smirk before launching off again. She jumps across from wall to wall as quickly as she can, holding on just long enough to slow her descent and guide herself in the right direction.

The adrenaline rushes through her, and she lets out a whoop as she sails through the air. Kimberly’s laughter echoes her own from above, and Trini feels it wash over her, pressing her smile into her knees as she curls up to somersault in midair for a fleeting moment. She hits the next wall feet first and pushes herself off again, breaking off little bits of rock and reveling in the strength coiled in her own muscles that lets her do so many unbelievable things.

When she’s about halfway down and reasonably certain that she’s jumped this height before and will therefore not die, she pushes off the wall and lets herself fall, feeling the air rushing past and her hair flying out behind her.

The ground approaches and she grins again as she braces herself, and then hits the ground powerfully in a crouch, slamming her fist down to catch herself.

“Superhero landing! Whoo!” Zack cheers, and Trini grins broadly as she stands and brushes off her knees, giddy as she always is when they find something new and cool they can do with their powers.

“Incoming!” Billy calls out, and they all step back and look up to see Kimberly soaring across the Pit. She rebounds off the walls, all smooth agility and lean strength, and Trini watches slack-jawed, absolutely positive that she hadn’t looked that graceful on her way down. Then again, Kimberly was also the one who had been fond of backflipping off of cliffs before they’d even gotten their powers, so this was probably to be expected. Coupled with the fact that this is _Kimberly_ , it was definitely to be expected.

A few more acrobatic twists, and Kimberly swiftly approaches the ground. Unlike Trini, she keeps control of her descent, and when they see her dig her fingers into the rock as she falls, shifting her position, it’s clear she’s aiming for something.

Kimberly swings herself around one last time and slams down on top of the spaceship’s entrance connected to the Pit, immediately flipping forward again and landing on the ground in a neat crouch. She pops to her feet, smiling brightly, and all Trini can do is stare at her with a dazed expression on her face.

Billy happy claps, moving his gaze between the two of them, and the sound snaps her out of it. She turns towards him and accepts his fist bump easily, hoping her face isn’t as flushed as it feels.

“And on that note, I think it’s time to call it a day,” Jason announces, already moving across the Pit, and Trini jumps when she realizes Kimberly has appeared next to her.

“That was awesome,” Kimberly says, throwing an arm around Trini’s shoulders as they head back into the ship, and as Trini brings her hand up to grip her wrist, she has to agree.

 

 

\-----

 

 

“For what it’s worth,” Zack says, not looking up from where he’s doing homework on the coffee table, “She really cares about you. Kimberly.”

Trini is thrown by the random statement, pulled away from making notes for her English paper. “What?”

He gives her a quick smile and looks away, leaning back against the couch. “Give me a little credit here, I’m not blind.”

Trini stays quiet, mouth suddenly dry and heart racing, but this is only Zack, and Trini tells herself this isn’t a bad thing.

“I know that you’re… afraid,” Zack continues carefully, and Trini appreciates that he doesn’t look at her, instead focusing on the pen he’s twirling around his fingers. Even a month ago, Trini’s reaction would have been to smack him and storm off, but now she just wants to laugh. Yes, she’s afraid.

She’s afraid of alien invasions, and giant monsters, and failing in their mission to protect the world. She’s afraid that someone will get hurt on her watch, she’s afraid of screwing up when the stakes are too high to afford it. She’s afraid they won’t be strong enough to stop whoever it is that’s coming for the Zeo Crystal that Rita had threatened them about. Hell, she’s still afraid of Rita, even though she knows she’s frozen in space somewhere, probably floating out by the moon.

She’s also afraid of her brothers getting hurt at school, public speaking in front of crowds, and spiders. She’s afraid her parents will never forgive her for so thoroughly ruining their ‘perfect image’ of what their daughter should be. She’s afraid of moving again, leaving behind the one place where she’s finally starting to feel like she belongs. 

She’s afraid of being alone.

She’s afraid of waking up one day and finding out that all of this, the powers and the adventures and the friends, has just been some kind of crazy fever dream.

Zack is still quiet, not looking directly at her because he knows it would make her exponentially more uncomfortable, and he also knows that it takes her time to gather her thoughts. He knows these things about her, just like all the Rangers know things about her now, and she knows things about them. They’ve cared enough to get to know her, and they haven’t given up, and Trini has never had people like that.

She’s afraid of losing any of them.

And she’s afraid of losing Kimberly.

She knows she likes Kimberly. She knows she _like likes_  Kimberly. She is self-aware enough to see that about herself, and even if she wasn’t, she’s certainly had enough time to work it out in the months they’ve spent together.

And this is just great, because now it seems like Zack knows it too.

“As your self-appointed wingman – ”

“I never agreed to that.”

“ – I’m telling you, it’s only a matter of time before something slips up, and then it’ll just be all messy and complicated and awkward. Better to get ahead of it now.” He pauses for a minute and stills his pen, and then shrugs. “Though, knowing you, it’s still going to be kind of awkward. And also, yes, I realize how crazy this sounds coming from me, but I’m serious.”

“Um,” Trini clears her throat, “What – what are you trying to say?”

“I’m pretty sure you know what I’m trying to say,” he flashes her a grin, “And I gotta say, dude… You are not subtle. You’re really not. And… you should try to trust yourself. Go after what you want.”

Trini grumbles, choosing to focus on his dig at her for the moment as she feels her cheeks start to redden. “Excuse me, I don’t exactly see you being subtle about anything. And how do you know what I want? I don’t even know what I want.” She’s avoiding a proper answer, but Zack isn’t bothered by it.

“Come on dude, you have to live in the moment. Be happy now!”

Trini hesitates, her fingers moving to the paper in front of her and mechanically starting to curl the corners as she fidgets.

“But what if… what if it’s not…”

When it becomes clear Trini isn’t going to be able to finish the thought, he puts his pen down and splays his hands across the surface of the table. “It’s like jumping the cliff, you know?” he says gently, “You know all about that.” He lets her turn the idea around in her head and then continues, “But yeah, I’m pretty sure you don’t have to worry about this screwing up the team or anything. She really cares about you, and I don’t know if there’s anything you could do that would really push her away. You won’t lose her. Or any of us,” he tacks on as an afterthought.

Trini sits quietly, letting his words sink in. After a moment, she also spares a second to puzzle over why she isn’t already up and running away. This is the type of conversation she usually bails on instantly.

“You know, when you’re not being annoying, you give pretty good advice,” she says somewhat weakly, halfheartedly trying to get the conversation back within her comfort zone.

He only shrugs, the corners of his mouth turning up. “What can I say? I’m just a regular Yoda. A hotter Yoda. With better hair."

Trini laughs quietly. “Thanks, Zack.”

He grins at her, happy and kind and supportive, and she smiles back. “Now come on, screw homework,” he jumps up and holds his hand out to her. “You want to learn how to make legit homemade dumplings?”

Trini nods and lets him pull her to her feet, going to clear out the little kitchen area while he gets the ingredients together.

Zack makes fun of her for dropping the spoon with the filling and almost knocking her bowl off the table, but not for taking a couple tries to figure out how to shape the dough wrapping properly so it won’t fall apart, and not for mangling the Chinese words when she tries to mimic him after insisting he teach her some Mandarin. Later she repeats the words in Spanish, and he isn’t half bad a parroting them back to her.

He doesn’t mention Kimberly again, but by the end of the day, Trini decides that maybe he’s right.

Maybe it is time for her to try jumping across the cliff again.

 

 

\-----

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i just want everybody to know this whole thing literally spiralled from that one bit about trini being afraid


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> extended it for another chapter whoops

Trini means to talk to Kimberly about it, really she does, and she spends weeks trying to work up the courage. But Trini is not good at talking about her feelings, or anything pertaining to them. No, Trini is much, much better at running away. Far away. She’s a champ at avoidance, and unfortunately that is the exact opposite of what she needs in this situation.

After making precisely no progress in figuring out how to approach Kimberly about it, she's just about ready to give it up and go back to pushing her feelings down while pretending everything is totally platonic.

 

And then, Trini gets hurt in training.

 

Zack and Jason are back-to-back, smashing simulation putties and working together, guarding each other’s backs and setting up attacks, and it’s going well.

Except neither of them see the putty on the wall and headed at them from above, and Trini does. She jumps quickly to intercept it, tackling it out of the air, but she knows as soon as her feet leave the ground that she doesn’t have enough leverage.

They crash against the floor and the putty knocks her away easily. Even though she manages to get her hands up in a block, it sends her flying and she loses her bearings for a moment before her body hits the cave wall with a hard thud, violently knocking the air out of her lungs. Before she even falls to the ground, there’s a sharp crack and the wall somehow crumples inwards around her body. She desperately throws her arms out, body working on autopilot to try and catch herself, and distantly registers a blinding flash of panic. The only warning she gets is the feeling of her armour being pulled out of her, the action driven by an instinct to morph before what seems like the entire wall comes down on her.

All she sees is dust and rubble and darkness, and then something heavy is slamming on top of her, harsh impacts all along her armour that she can feel down to her bones along with a sickening crack. There’s a terrifying moment of stillness as the silence rings in her ears, overwhelming through her helmet, and then light leaks abruptly back in, pieces of rock giving way to the blurred form of a Ranger standing above her. More bodies crowd into her vision, seemingly tearing away the rest of the mess on top of her, and soon she’s in the clear again.

Taking a moment to try and get her bearings, Trini’s eyes slide shut unintentionally. She’s curled on her side, wearing her armour and surrounded by dust, and though pretty much everything hurts, Trini thinks she’s okay. Probably. She sucks in a breath to try and dispel the abrupt rush of adrenaline, feeling nauseous.

Voices echo as the ringing in her ears recedes, and Trini struggles to open her eyes.

“Trini! Trini, are you okay?!”

“Get her out of there – ”

“Can we move her?”

“Trini!”

Her vision swims back into focus, and she blinks to see the worried faces of her team crowded around in front of her. Kimberly and Zack have their armour on, masks up, Billy is covered in dirt, and she thinks Jason’s shirt most definitely did not have a gash torn into the front of it.

Kimberly and Zack reach out and slowly try to lift her, although as far as Trini can tell they just slide her off the pile of rubble and towards the open floor of the Pit, settling her on smooth rock.

“Motherfu– ” Trini winces, and then cringes some more and tries to stop moving when that makes her entire face spasm painfully.

She slowly rolls onto her back, hands held protectively over her face, and squeezes her eyes shut again at the involuntary motion, drawing her right hand instead to her chest. With her other hand she tries to feel her face, but then realizes her armour is still up as her fingers pat at the smooth surface of her mask.

“Trini?” 

Zack’s armour has already disappeared, and Kimberly’s melts away as Trini watches. There’s a haze of dust floating in the air, making everything look more shadowy than it usually does in the cave lighting, and Billy has one hand on Jason’s arm, the other flat on the ground as he balances himself in a crouch. Jason’s got dust in his hair, and he looks ridiculous.

Trini’s gaze wanders, moving from her friends to the cave wall towering above them and then back. It's hot in this cave, but then Trini furrows her brow, because it's also very cold. The others are still waiting expectantly for something, worried expressions on their faces, and Trini realizes they’re waiting for her. Because she was the one who got buried under a pile of rocks. Right.

Trini grunts and slowly tries to sit up, knowing she has to drop her armour to assess how badly she’s hurt, but her right foot is throbbing dully and her arm is kind of numb, and she instinctively knows the only thing suppressing the pain is her armour. There are hands on her back, and Trini lets them guide her into a sitting position as she tries to take a couple deep breaths through her mouth, head spinning.

Kimberly moves so she’s kneeling close beside her, one knee propped up at her back to give Trini something solid to lean against. 

“Trini, are you okay? Can you hear me?” Kimberly takes her right hand, eyes desperately searching her mask, but Trini winces when she squeezes too hard. Kimberly immediately lets go, withdrawing with horror on her face, but Trini reaches over with her other hand to reassure her, keeping the injured one cradled against herself.

Zack is crouched on Trini’s other side, and Jason and Billy are in front of her, on either side of her splayed legs.

“Trini, can you tell me if you’re okay? The rocks came down before you morphed, we didn’t see how much landed on you.” Jason’s voice is serious, too serious, in the we-have-to-save-the-entire-goddamn-planet serious, and it’s an unwelcome throwback for Trini.

“Also, we don’t actually know how much weight our armour can withstand. Oh my god, we need to test these things first,” Billy’s voice is distressed as he clenches and unclenches his fists, and Trini thinks he’s probably right.

“I – I think so. Shit – what happened?” Trini rasps, trying to ignore the roiling nausea rising in her stomach.

“You hit that wall, and it must have been cracked or – or had a hollow pocket behind it, or something else to make it less structurally sound than standard cave walls. Look over there, see?” Trini doesn’t bother turning her head to see what Billy’s found, but apparently the rubble gives the others some kind of answer.

“Trini?” Zack’s voice is quiet at her side, and Trini struggles to turn her head and meet his eyes. She recognizes the expression on his face, hollow and small and scared, and she dips her head towards him, wordlessly trying to reassure him.

Turning back, Trini focuses on the hand Kimberly is gripping, trying to concentrate on retracting her armour even though her body very much does not want to let it go. Something squeezes around her shoulders encouragingly, and oh, Kimberly must have her other arm around Trini as well.

Trini breathes in shakily one more time, staring at Kimberly’s fingers holding her armour-plated hand and willing it to pull back. It starts to recede, starting at her fingertips, and Kimberly’s warm skin is more comforting to touch than Trini expected. She watches the yellow slowly disappear, crawling up her arm and then across her body, noting absently that it seems to be trying to keep the armour on the right side of her body intact the longest, along with her helmet.

Air hits something wet on her face when her mask dissolves, and that’s her first indication that something isn’t right. Her entire body feels shaky, like she’s been spun around too fast, but Kimberly is holding her just tight enough to ground her.

Trini clings to that, trying her best to ready herself, but she still gasps and slams her eyes shut as her armour finally disappears completely. A wave of pain rolls over her, and she is not pleased to find her theory about the armour suppressing it was right. Something in her leg is definitely broken, and her arm doesn’t feel much better. She slits her eyes open and tries to look down, but accidentally bumps her head against Kimberly’s chin, only now realizing that she’s been pressing herself into Kimberly and Kimberly is basically wrapped around her.

“Oh my god, that’s a lot of blood.” Billy is staring at her with wide eyes, hands held up frozen in front of him, and from what Trini can see through her hazy vision even Zack looks a little pale.

“Her nose is broken,” Alpha informs them, robot voice clouded with worry, and the other Rangers immediately start talking over each other again.

Trini doesn’t bother trying to keep up, focusing her energy instead on stopping the whimper from leaving her throat and not doing something lame like pass out on the cave floor. The moment of nausea passes and her head slowly stops spinning, and she groans.

“Trini, are you okay?” Kimberly is looking at her with concerned eyes, holding her tighter with the hand around her back and using the other to brush Trini’s hair out of her face. Trini grimaces as she feels the strands sticky with blood, but Kimberly pays it no mind, smoothing it behind Trini’s ear.

“Just peachy,” she grumbles as she shifts gingerly, kicking herself for making this much of a mess of herself. Kimberly’s fingers are soothing as she strokes across her forehead, and Trini’s attention focuses on that instead of everything else. The back of her hand brushes against the material of Kimberly’s shirt, and without thinking she reaches out her fingers to grip that too, holding tightly and feeling Kimberly’s fingers flex around her own. She breathes shallowly, trying to push down the pain enough that she can at least get her hands to stop shaking.

Billy sits down in front of her, examining her ankle. “I think it’s broken.” He looks at Alpha 5 for confirmation, and then looks back at Trini. “Your ankle’s broken. Can I take your shoe off? Are we supposed to take your shoe off if you break your ankle?” Trini gives him the approximation of a shrug, telling him to do what he wants.

Alpha is peering intently at her arm, some mechanism whirring behind blinking robot eyes. “I do believe I’ve located the problem.” Alpha looks up and then takes Jason’s wrist, pulling on it so he extends his arm out to the side. Looking between his and Trini’s still cradled in her lap, Alpha nods and points at Jason’s forearm. “This one is cracked. Fractured? It’s already healing, though, so I’d say a few days and you’ll be right as rain!” Alpha beams and drops Jason’s arm, “Your nose though, that’s going to be very painful if it heals like that before we fix it.”

Kimberly looks from Alpha to Trini, her face a picture of barely controlled distress as she exhales shakily, saying, “It’s already swelling, we have to set it now.”

“Well, one of you hurry up and set it then,” Trini says through gritted teeth, trying to ignore the way her whole face is _throbbing_. She can taste the blood, and knows from experience the gruesome image she must be painting with it dripping down her teeth.

Jason gapes at her. “No way! We have to get you to a doctor or something, Alpha can’t do this.”

“Bro, are you serious, we can’t just show up with her looking like she went three rounds with an axe murderer, look at her!” Zack shoves at Jason, waving one arm at Trini, and Trini has to say she agrees with him. At this point she can feel the blood caking on the bottom half of her face, and the front of her shirt is definitely soaked in it. Are broken noses really supposed to bleed this much?

She goes to poke at her nose with the hand that isn’t injured, trying to feel out what hurts, but as soon as she grimaces Kimberly grabs her wrist again and pulls it away, murmuring something Trini can’t make out. Trini sighs and lists to the side, leaning into Kimberly’s chest, and she feels the vibration when she speaks. 

“We can’t take her to a hospital or anything, they’d probably try and get the police involved. Especially since we all look like we’ve been mugged or something.” Trini knows she’s referring to the assorted cuts and bruises they inevitably end up with after training. They always fade by the next day, but they can’t exactly explain that to anybody. Kimberly shakes her head and continues, “Not to mention, if it hurts to touch it right now, I imagine it’d be a whole lot worse to jump up through the water with enough force to reach the surface.”

“So we have to deal with this ourselves.” Zack nods to himself, putting his hand on Trini’s uninjured leg and nodding decisively. “Cool. Alright. Jason? Set her nose.”

“What? No! Why me?”

“Come on man, somebody must have broken their nose during football or something, right?”

“Yeah, and we went to the coach, or the nurse’s office!”

“Maybe we can google it,” Billy says, standing to get his phone.

Trini inexplicably feels a laugh welling up in her throat, watching Zack and Jason bicker while Billy loudly reads out whatever he’s finding online. She huffs lightly and shifts up when she feels Kimberly move. Thankfully, all she does is make sure Trini is sitting up properly before shuffling around on one knee so she's facing her more head-on, because Trini doesn’t think she can stay sitting on her own.

“Hold still,” Kimberly tells her softly, tentative fingers prodding the area around her nose. “We set broken noses on the field a couple times during cheerleading,” she says over her shoulder, eyes not leaving Trini’s face.

“You guys did what now?” 

Jason sounds aghast, and this time Trini does giggle a little bit. Kimberly pulls back and gives her a smile, crossing her arms loosely across her raised knee and leaning forwards, one hand dropping down to rest on Trini’s forearm. 

Moving back towards them, Zack guffaws as he crouches on his toes behind her to help prop her up. “The cheerleaders managed to do it but the football players couldn’t? Not calling cheerleaders weak or anything here, but seriously?”

“That’s because football players are wimps,” Kimberly laughs.

“What? Football players are not wimps.”

She scoffs. “Are you kidding? I’ve seen Ralph Thompson cry over a sprained finger.”

“I – yeah, okay, fine. But you think you can set Trini’s nose?”

The teasing look on her face drops immediately, and she turns back to Trini, worry creasing her brow.

“Yeah,” she nods, voice slightly too high for comfort, but Trini appreciates the effort she puts into appearing confident.

“Have you done it before?” Billy asks doubtfully.

"I – well, no, but I saw when they set Jessica’s, I know how to do it,” she nods again. “I can totally do it, yup. No problem.”

Trini groans again, doing her best to hold still. “Okay, not that I don’t trust you Kim, because I do, but why haven’t any of us gotten legit first aid training?”

“That… that is a very good point, we should do that. Jason, we should do that,” Billy nods empathetically, “Why haven’t we done that, guys? It makes so much sense, we should do that.”

There’s a murmur of assent, and then Kimberly puts her hands on Trini’s face again, smearing some of the blood away with the back of her knuckles.

“You sure about this?”

“Oh yeah,” Trini intones, raising her shoulder at Kimberly in a half shrug, “It’s exactly what every girl dreams of.”

Kimberly scoffs and tilts Trini’s head from side to side. After a long moment, she takes a deep breath and then lets it out, carefully lining steady fingers along either side of Trini’s nose.

“Okay, you ready?”

Trini is very much not ready, but she meets Kimberly’s eyes and gives her a slight nod anyways. Kimberly’s eyes search hers, and after a moment she nods back.

Something snaps again in her nose, and Trini slams her eyes shut, biting back her cry of pain.

Zack is rubbing his hand across her back, and Kimberly is whispering distressed apologies, hands fluttering uselessly between them. Trini curls inwards, instinctively shifting towards Kimberly, and Kimberly wraps her in a loose hug, holding her close. She cradles her head carefully against her chest when Trini leans forward, uncaring about the blood that Trini is definitely getting on her shirt.

“Okay,” Trini says, panting lightly and trying to reassure herself as much as them, “Okay, yup, I’m good.”

They’re still huddled around her, apparently not convinced, and Trini sighs again. While this might be the most severe injury any of them have sustained in training, and also hurt like a _bitch_ , it’s nowhere near life threatening.

The fact doesn’t seem to be settling her friends at all, and Trini furrows her brow.

She’s extremely grateful she managed to morph into her armour and that it was enough to withstand the worst of the rubble until her friends pulled her out, but apparently she had somehow managed to land on her arm, leg, and _face_ first. Trini’s not too pleased with the results either, to be honest.

“Guys, seriously, I’m good. I’ll be okay.”

“You’re sure?” Jason repeats, face still pinched with worry, and Billy leans closer to her, concern radiating off of him.

“Really, you can quit worrying so much,” Trini shifts, starting to feel uncomfortable with all the attention on her.

The arm around her shoulders squeezes, and when Trini looks up Kimberly is still watching her carefully. “We’re just worried about you,” she says softly, hair falling into her eyes as she tilts her head down. The motion combined with the shadows cast by the cave momentarily obscures her face, and Trini’s brow furrows again for a reason she doesn’t understand. “Just like you’d worry about any of us.”

Trini’s gaze automatically drops, and she tries to ignore her throbbing nose so she can sort through this without the distraction, her jaw working as she turns the revelation over in her head. Of course she worries about them, they all worry about each other, and that obviously means they all care about each other. You don’t worry about people you don’t care about. She shakes her head a little, because it was obvious, but still didn’t make any sense.

“I know,” Trini whispers in the loudest voice she can manage, the unease not making her head swim any less. After a pause, she lifts her head again. “Thanks.” She waits, hesitation probably clear on her face, but for what she can’t say.

“I thinks it’ll be better if we get you to the med bay now. The ship has to have something we can use to cast your foot.”

Trini nods tiredly, and the others start moving. Billy goes ahead with Alpha 5 to find something they can make braces out of, and Trini lets her head fall forward to rest against Kimberly’s shoulder, feeling the exhaustion catch up with her.

She misses what Zack says next, rolling her head to try and look at him but only getting so far as to get his shoulder in her line of vision. Kimberly moves with her, and Trini brings up a hand to rub at her temple, wearily letting Kimberly shift her around.

“Come on, Trini,” Kimberly murmurs, gathering Trini into her arms, one behind her back and one under her knees. Dazed and realizing she may be more than a little out of it, Trini doesn’t notice that Kimberly’s planning to carry her until she’s about to pick her up. Her breath catches, but with exhaustion weighing heavily on her limbs, her mind seems separated from her body.

“Let’s go, crazy girl,” Zack says softly, leaning down to help Kimberly slowly stand with Trini in her arms. Kimberly shows no sign of struggling to support her weight, and Trini’s grateful she doesn’t have to move on her own anymore. After taking a moment to make sure she’s steady, Kimberly starts to carry her back into the ship, and Jason fall into step beside them, carefully holding Trini’s legs level so her ankle doesn’t get jostled too much as they move.

“Shut up, Zack,” Trini mumbles, letting her eyes slip shut and tucking her broken arm protectively around her waist as they slowly make their way through the ship. Her head is pounding and her eyes feel dry and scratchy. She lets her head fall to Kimberly’s shoulder again, tucking her forehead against her neck and keeping her head angled down so her nose isn’t in danger of getting squished.

Even with the pain, she feels warm and safe, and while part of her is sure she’s imagining it, another part knows it’s all because of Kimberly. Drawing comfort from her presence, she lets herself go limp, knowing Kimberly won’t let anything happen to her.

When they get to the med bay, she’s placed on a cot and greeted by Alpha waving a bunch of metal sticks around triumphantly, while Billy has one arm full of what look like seatbelts, and the other arm full of flat sheets of metal that Trini’s pretty sure he peeled off the wall of the ship.

Kimberly clambers up next to her, wrapping her arm around Trini again and pulling her into her side, and Trini latches on willingly, grateful for the comfort. She’s sore all over, Kimberly is soft, and her head feels like it’s full of electric static, the kind that makes her want to curl up and sleep for a year.

Before she can make herself too comfortable, Alpha holds up a test tube full of purple liquid and orders her to drink it. Trini lethargically picks up her head so she doesn’t have to move away from Kimberly and stares, considering it for a moment and then slowly shrugging one shoulder and holding out her hand. She’s too sore and tired to argue about it, or to try and get an explanation out of their resident robot caretaker. Holding the test tube at eye level, she swirls the liquid around a couple times and then sniffs it, squinting at it critically before deciding to just down whatever it is.

Predictably, Trini gags on it, because it tastes like ocean spray and raspberries, somehow, and it’s definitely freaking her out. She eyes the now empty tube in her hand warily, extremely unsettled and considering maybe she really should have asked before drinking it. “Um – what the _hell_ was that?” She looks up for an explanation, perplexed, but then realizes the sharp pain edging at the outskirts of her awareness has already started to dull, leaving her with a hazy impression of discomfort instead.

Ah. Alien painkiller then. Sure.

Alpha takes the empty test tube from her and Billy drops all his supplies on the bed next to her, shuffling through the pile and rambling about the time he broke his arm as a kid. He tugs off her shoe and carefully pushes her pant leg up, and Trini is really glad she’s wearing her loose yoga pants today because it folds easily.

Jason stands in front of her, twisting his fingers as he tilts his head with a concerned look on his face. “Do you want a blanket? I’m sure there’s a blanket around here somewhere.”

“Or some pillows?” Zack is already collecting pillows from the other cots around the room, bringing them over to her, and Trini wonders how badly injured they think she is for them to still be fussing.

“Uh… sure?” Trini says hesitantly, letting them prop her up and create a wall of pillows behind her. “Thanks, guys. I really am fine though, you don’t have to…” she trails off when she leans back and sinks into the new arrangement. “Oh,” she murmurs, because this is actually much more comfortable than before. “Cool. …Thank you.”

She lets Alpha and Billy fret over her foot and closes her eyes, listening to Kimberly’s heartbeat next to here ear. Whatever painkiller Alpha gave her is working great and making her extremely sleepy again, but she tries to stay awake, if only so she can answer Billy’s questions about the comfort of the brace he’s building.

She barely notices Jason and Zack slip out of the room, slumping completely onto Kimberly in a way that she would be embarrassed of in a situation where she was less tired. Kimberly is running gentle fingers through her hair, and just as the soothing motions are about to put her to sleep, Billy makes a pleased noise, tapping her shin to get her attention.

She blinks and pushes herself up groggily to see Billy and Alpha brandishing their arms at her now metal-encased foot.

“What do you think?”

Trini sits up properly and tries to shake the heaviness from her limbs, shifting her leg and wiggling her toes. She nods, “Thanks guys, it's really good.” She leans forward to inspect it, pulling a little at the overlapping sheets of metal and marveling at how they’re not digging into her skin.

Billy smiles and moves around the bed, gesturing for Trini to give him her broken arm. She leans towards him and slowly lays it out, the movement dislodging Kimberly’s hand from her hair, and it lands on Trini’s back instead, already rubbing small circles.

Alpha scurries out of the room to fetch something, mumbling about having just finished repairing some equipment to use in this situation, and she tiredly watches him go. Kimberly’s thumb moves to rubbing the back of her neck, and Trini’s eyes slip shut again.

She lets the comfort wash over her, and when Kimberly pulls away, Trini makes a small sound of protest, suddenly feeling very cold where she had been pressed against her. Kimberly gives her an apologetic smile and jumps off the bed, squeezing her hand before running to one of the cabinets on the other side of the room. Before Trini can feel too foolish, she comes back with a roll of gauze and a bottle with a label she doesn’t recognize.

“I think it’s time to clean you up a bit, that can’t be comfortable,” she says, perching back on the bed and cracking open the bottle.

Billy brightens when she starts unrolling the gauze, looking up from Trini’s arm. “Hey, can I have some of that?”

“Sure,” Kimberly passes it to him and waits while he unwinds it a couple times, wrapping it around his own wrist before tearing the section off and giving it back. He uses his strip to gently start wrapping Trini’s wrist and arm, and Trini watches with interest as he takes a small stick of metal and bends it so it curves over her arm.

A light touch on her cheek brings her attention back to Kimberly, now holding a wet square of gauze and beckoning her closer.

Trini hesitates even as she leans forward as much as she can without disturbing her arm. “Kim, I can – you really don’t have to – ”

“Trini, shut up,” Kimberly says mildly, adjusting her position and then making a thoughtful noise, standing to hook her foot around a nearby stool and roll it closer. She sits on it and spins around to face Trini again, inching closer until she’s pressed against the edge of the bed, and starts using the gauze to wipe away the dried blood.

Trini wants to protest again, but Kimberly raises an eyebrow at her and only continues to gently clean the blood off Trini’s face, brow furrowing slightly as she concentrates. She keeps one hand on Trini’s chin, holding it still and then tilting it to reach the other side of her face, mindful of her nose. Trini barely feels the twinges of pain, too distracted by Kimberly’s eyes and the way her hand is gently cradling her jaw.

Alpha trundles back into the room, holding something that looks suspiciously like a barcode scanner, and Trini starts at his entrance, prompting Kimberly to make a disapproving sound as she pulls Trini’s face back to her. The movement makes Trini blush as she looks up at her hesitantly, but Kimberly stays focused on her task.

Billy finishes with her brace at the same time, allowing her to take her arm back, and she blinks a couple times before nodding at him, impressed with how sturdy it feels. “You’re really good at this.” He happy claps again at her words, and Kimberly smiles too as she makes quick work of wiping away the rest of the blood.

She urges Trini to lie back as she stands to wash her hands and throw out the used gauze, and Trini complies, wondering absently why something seems off about Kimberly. Even through the haze of soreness and exhaustion that’s set in over her mind, it seems like Kimberly is acting much more subdued than usual, and Trini squints, trying to decide if she’s imagining it or if she needs to get concerned.

She considers it as she wriggles down into the pillows and Alpha sets up the thing that must be some kind of alien scanner. She watches as Alpha jumps up and leaves again, but then a loud banging starts echoing through the halls of the ship. It’s less we’re-under-attack-and-in-imminent-danger-of-dying and more children-breaking-things-they-shouldn’t-be-breaking, but still not what one wanted to hear when they were in an underground alien spaceship.

“What…?” Trini tries to sit up but Kimberly stops her with a hand on her shoulder. Her brow is creased as she looks at the door, clearly confused as well, and all at once Trini remembers that Zack and Jason aren’t here.

Evidently coming to the same conclusion, Kimberly shakes her head. “No, you stay here, don’t move. I’ll go see what they’re doing.” Kimberly leans down to press a quick kiss to her temple and leaves, and Billy takes her seat at Trini’s side.

A few minutes pass and she doesn’t come back, and the sound shifts to a thunderous crashing. Now Trini’s really starting to get concerned, and Billy swivels on the stool next to her, watching the door apprehensively.

“Do you think we should go check what’s going on?”

“We should absolutely go check what’s going on,” Trini sits up and goes to swing her legs off the bed, but Billy jumps up first.

“Wait, you’re hurt! You have to stay in bed. You’re not allowed to move, got it?” Billy points a warning finger at her as he backs towards the door. “Promise me you won’t get up.”

Trini slumps down again. “Okay, I promise I won’t get up,” she sighs, “But can you like, start yelling or something if there’s trouble?”

Billy nods and slips out, and then Trini’s alone with the beeping scanner Alpha left pointed at her. The crashes don’t stop, irregular bangs reverberating through the ship, and Trini resolves to give them two more minutes before she goes hobbling through the halls after them.

Just as she’s steeling herself to find out the hard way if her new brace will support enough of her weight to walk, the noise stops, and she stays still, listening for any indication of what’s happened.

She doesn’t hear anything aside from the standard hum of the ship, and then the sound of footsteps as her team finally appears in the doorway, all four of them smiling but covered in far more dirt than is usual for a simple training session, and certainly more dirt than when they left her.

Trini exhales as they grin at her, coming farther into the room. “So do I get an explanation?” Trini asks wryly as she slumps back, raising an eyebrow at them as the relief rushes through her.

“We were just…” Zack trails off, raking a hand through his hair. “Um… checking the Pit?”

They all shift on their feet, and Trini keeps waiting. “Checking for what?”

“Any other unstable walls,” Billy answers, shooting a quick glance at the others before turning back.

“You got hurt because of this, and we’re not letting it happen again,” Kimberly says, so fiercely it surprises her.

“What?”

“Even though we can’t really guarantee anything, given what we keep doing and the fact that we fight aliens, it’s a good idea to take precautions where we can,” Billy adds, and Zack nods in agreement.

“Yeah, precautions! So we went to go check over the rest of the cave.”

“We were worried, you know? If that wall had a – a fault behind it, or an interior… crack… uh…” Jason waves his hand at Billy for clarification but they only end up talking over each other, and Kimberly takes over.

“Bottom line is, we just punched the walls in to make sure none of the others would come down like today.”

“Yeah, so any that were loose like the one you hit was, or cracked or whatever, we took them out and there’ll be no more surprises.” Jason says it assuredly, “Except for all the rocks lying around now. That mess probably going to surprise you when you see it. We’re going to have to move those somewhere.”

“Everything’s stable now! The Pit is as safe as safe can be. For, you know, a sketchy underwater cave,” Zack beams at her, and Jason gives her a thumbs up.

Trini doesn’t know how to react, blinking and ducking her head as she picks at the bedcover. “…That’s a good idea,” she says faintly, nodding to herself. There’s a hand on her shoulder again, and she looks up to see Kimberly smiling at her. She gives her a quick hug before spinning and flopping on the bed next to Trini again, arms spread.

Billy starts patting himself down, trying to knock off some of the dust sticking to his clothes, and Zack and Jason copy him, spreading themselves around the room. Still lying down, Kimberly tries brushing off her arms, each of them creating small clouds of dust.

“We should get you a change of clothes,” Jason mentions, and Trini looks down at her ruined shirt.

“I got it!” Zack jumps up and races out the door. They all leave bags here with extra clothes, mostly for having something dry to change into but also for the occasional times they wreck their clothes during training. Or get them covered in blood.

A minute later, Zack skids back into the room and comes over to Trini. “Here,” he offers her the backpack, and Trini squints at it as she struggles to sit up. It doesn’t look like her bag, but she’s a little out of it right now.

Luckily, Kimberly’s paying attention as well, piping up, “That’s mine, actually.”

Zack pulls back his arm, looking at the bag and then at the two girls. “Really?” he asks, confused, “Oh, sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Kimberly sits up and beckons for the bag, “You can just wear some of my stuff, Trin. My pants will absolutely not fit you, but we can roll up the sweats if you want?”

Trini can only nod as Kimberly pulls clothes out, not protesting until she realizes that Kimberly will probably have to help her change. She sighs and hopes that her nose is swollen enough to hide her inevitable blush. She thinks she deserves some luck at this point.

Thankfully, her nose does seem to be healing at an accelerated rate, but if her blurred reflection in the shiny metal of the door is anything to judge by, she’s developed a stellar set of black eyes, dark bruising ringing around them. Trini really hopes that goes away before she has to face her parents.

Jason gets up at a pointed look from Kimberly and shuffles Zack and Billy out in front of him, flashing a smile at her before letting the door close, leaving them alone.

Trini stares at Kimberly, and Kimberly stares at Trini. Trini’s heart is pounding completely out of control, but Kimberly blinks first.

“Come on, I’ve seen you change before.”

“Yeah, but you weren’t _helping_ me change then.”

Trini is grateful that Kimberly isn’t using this situation to start making comments laden with sexual innuendos, because Kimberly loves doing that, and Trini wouldn’t even be able to blame her for it this time. The situation is presenting her with enough material to keep her going for at least a couple weeks, probably more if she gets creative. Trini has the sneaking suspicion that Kimberly is holding back for some reason.

“I know you don’t like needing help, but even you have to admit it’d be a real pain to try changing by yourself right now.”

Trini looks down and grumbles. At least Kimberly thinks that’s the only reason she’s less than enthused about this.

“Well, it’s me or one of the guys.”

There’s a pause as Trini tries to think of a way around this, and then she sighs dramatically and waves her uninjured hand through the air, telling Kimberly to get on with it as she sits up properly.

Kimberly offers Trini the bag, letting her pick out a shirt, but when she takes it and sets it in her lap they both stop and stare at the bulky brace strapped around her foot.

“Okay, so maybe we should have thought of this before they built that whole thing,” Kimberly folds one arm across her chest and props her opposite elbow up on it, resting her chin on her fist. “This is a problem.”

“Yeah, thanks for the update, Kim,” Trini says wryly, leaning forward to tug at her pant leg to see how far it can stretch, but there’s no way they’re fitting it over the brace.

“I guess you’re staying in them, unless you want me to cut them off?”

Trini shakes her head. Relatively, they aren’t too bad, and Trini can mostly knock off the dirt from when she was on the ground, as well as her imminent trip through the water cleaning at least some of it. Plus, this way Kimberly isn’t getting her pants off in the middle of the ship’s medbay. Trini doesn’t think she’d be able to handle that.

Kimberly nods as she comes closer, gesturing at her to lift her uninjured arm so she can start pulling her shirt up. Trini takes a moment to pull a shirt that buttons in the front out of the bag before complying reluctantly, but sucks in a breath at Kimberly’s fingers brushing against her stomach as she grasps the hem. To her chagrin, Kimberly gives her a knowing look but turns her attention to Trini’s arm as she wrangles it though the shirt, and Trini flushes darkly.

Once her uninjured arm is free, Kimberly bunches up the material and guides it over Trini’s head as she ducks down to help. Slowly, she gets it free, pausing to push Trini’s hair back from where it’s fallen into her face, and then carefully tugs the material over her arm, making sure not to snag the brace.

Trini curls her shoulders inwards now that she’s just sitting in front of her in a sports bra, but Kimberly moves quickly, taking the worn button-down Trini had chosen and holding it up to the side for Trini to slip her good arm into the sleeve. Trini rotates at the waist, trying and failing to reach the other sleeve, and Kimberly is now holding the other end of the shirt behind her back. Kimberly puts one knee on the bed next to Trini and leans closer, stretching out with her free hand to wrap the shirt around to Trini’s other side. She has to lean partway over Trini’s body to reach, taking care not to jostle Trini’s leg or put any weight on her bruises, and in doing so she unintentionally brackets Trini’s head between her arms.

Trini’s brain stalls when the motion puts Kimberly’s chest in much closer proximity to her face than it usually is. Freezing, she completely forgets that she’s supposed to be trying to fit her arm through the proffered sleeve, and doesn’t feel Kimberly trying to get her attention when she taps her thumb against her shoulder.

“Um, Trini? Your arm…?”

Trini makes a choked sound and jerks her head backwards, the back of her neck colliding with Kimberly’s hands and knocking her slightly off-balance. Mortified, she lifts her frantic eyes to Kimberly’s face, but Kimberly seems concentrated on steadying herself on her knee again.

“Whoa, are you okay?”

Kimberly holds the shirt up again as she waits for an answer, picking up Trini’s wrist, and Trini mechanically moves her arm where she directs. She thinks she gives some kind of a nod, but her body is in full panic mode and her throat is refusing to let her get any words out. She bites her lip and waits, but Kimberly doesn’t do anything other than give a hum of acknowledgement, using her hands to smooth the material over her shoulders.

Trini’s going to blame the painkillers for all of this. Kimberly’s cheeks actually look a little pink when she stands and goes to grab a cloth and run it under the sink, so now Trini definitely knows her headache is making her see things.

Kimberly runs the cloth under the water for longer than Trini thinks is necessary, but eventually she shuts off the tap and turns back around, passing it to Trini. She stares at it in blankly, and Kimberly motions at her neck, to where Trini hadn’t noticed more blood had seeped through her shirt.

Trini busies herself with cleaning it off, glad for the excuse to hide her face behind her hair, and then lets Kimberly help her button up the new shirt. Trini tries to hide her shallow breathing, muscles seizing up painfully, and is infinitely grateful that Kimberly doesn’t seem to be noticing how she’s acting now, or how she was acting moments before.

Finishing with the buttons, Kimberly takes a step back and turns to toss the cloth towards the sink, and as soon as her back is turned Trini exhales and drops her head. She adjusts the shirt, but then just about has a heart attack when she looks back up, because Kimberly is pulling off her tank top in one smooth motion, now standing there in only a sports bra. Kimberly keeps her back turned as she pulls a t-shirt out of her bag and tugs it over her head, shaking her hair out and making a satisfied noise at being relatively dust free.

She turns back and quirks an eyebrow when she catches Trini staring.

“Something you want to say, Trini?” she asks, sauntering forward with the beginnings of a smirk on her face. Trini swallows, mouth suddenly very dry as she averts her gaze.

“Ah – I – ”

“Yo, how long does it take to change!” Zack’s voice hollers from outside, causing Trini to jump again, and she hisses when the movement jars her nose. Something flashes over Kimberly’s face, but it’s gone by the time Trini fully opens her eyes.

“Right,” Kimberly clears her throat, going to the door and sticking her head out. Trini all but collapses as soon as her back is turned, her back hitting the cot with enough force to aggravate her headache, and that really isn’t doing herself any favors.

She bites her lip to contain her groan and then brings both hands up to scrub at her face. Of course, she hits her nose, and she sits up again at the sharp twinge of pain, wincing with her hands on her forehead. Quietly, she starts reciting every Spanish swear she can think of, trying to forget the last five minutes of her life.

In the background, Trini can hear Kimberly threatening Zack about something. “I swear to god, you couldn’t have waited 30 more seconds before – ” The rest is too muffled to hear, and Trini wonders what he did to piss her off this time.

Kimberly pulls her head back and steps to the side, keeping her arm out to stop the door from sliding shut as the boys troop back in. She narrows her eyes at Zack when he playfully punches her in the arm as he passes, muttering something Trini doesn’t hear, and in response Kimberly immediately jumps into action, somehow pushing off the wall and getting Zack into a headlock within seconds. Jason tries to pull them apart, but is only able to pry Kimberly off when Billy steps in to help.

Zack pops back up, dusting his shirt off and stepping towards Trini to lean on the bed next to her. “Glad to see you a little less blood covered, dude,” he winks at her with an impish grin, “You’re looking pretty good in Kimmy’s clothes too.”

Trini gapes at him, blush coming back full force, and Kimberly starts across the room again, only stopped by Jason’s hand on her shoulder. He gives her a look, and though Kimberly crosses her arms and rolls her eyes, she doesn’t head for Zack again. Trini decides she doesn’t care enough to figure out what’s going on with them, and instead tries to swing her legs off the bed.

Kimberly is at her side in a flash, stopping the motion, and this time it’s Jason who picks her up, bringing her through the halls and out of the ship. He deposits her lightly on one of the raised sections of rock under the water exit while they get everything together, and Trini appreciates it, really she does, but she hates depending on people like this.

She tugs sullenly on one of the straps holding the makeshift brace to her ankle and sighs. While Kimberly helps Billy pack away the extra metal bits he plans to use for patching up her braces, Zack comes towards her with his arms outstretched and a teasing grin on his face,

“Alright your majesty, time to go!” He moves to pick her up bridal style, but Trini stops him immediately, pulling her knees in and smacking at his arms.

“Okay, no,” she holds up a warning finger, glaring at him. It would probably hurt her to punch him right now, but she can take it. “That isn’t happening.”

“What, you can’t jump on your own,” he gestures at her sitting on the floor with one hand and points at the water ceiling with the other, “So, I’m going to carry the damsel in distress back to the surface, like the dashing hero I am.” He puffs out his chest but Trini only glares at him.

“Call me a damsel one more time.”

“Okay, guys, let’s save this for later,” Billy says, shouldering his backpack, “Zack, you know she’s going to try and fight you.”

“She’s totally going to win too,” Jason laughs, “But I think we’ve had enough injuries for today.” 

Zack chuckles easily, holding his hands up in surrender as he winks at Trini. “I’m just saying. But really, we need a way to get you to the surface.”

“Yeah, but your way is stupid. Besides, that would probably hurt more,” she huffs, looking down and extending her leg a little bit, feeling the weight of the brace pulling it down.

“She’s right,” Billy chimes in, tilting his head to the side as he stares at her braces, fingers moving in front of him. “We need to get her through the water at the angle with the least amount of resistance.”

“Here, how ‘bout this?” Kimberly crouches down next to her and holds her hands out, getting Trini to wrap her good arm around her neck and gingerly helping her to her feet. Jason steadies her from behind, waiting until she’s caught her balance before stepping away and letting Kimberly support her.

Nudging Trini’s casted foot with her own, Kimberly gets Trini to lift her foot and rest it on top of hers, and then grips her elbows, raising her enough that her weight is only on one leg. They take a couple careful steps towards the middle of the cavern, and Trini had not been prepared to be pressed so closely to Kimberly.

Stopping, Kimberly lets Trini take her foot back and casts a quick glance at the water ceiling, considering something. Trini waits nervously, biting her lip, and Kimberly turns back, seemingly satisfied.

She takes Trini's injured arm and maneuvers it so it’s resting securely against Trini's chest. Watching her the whole time, she takes a cautious step closer and winds her arms loosely around Trini’s waist, and Trini automatically puts her a shaking hand on her shoulder, sliding it down to hold the side of her arm. Then Kimberly puts one hand gently on the back of Trini's head to duck it forward, tucking it into the crook of her neck and resting her chin against her head.

“Like... like we did last time we had to carry someone through,” she says, voice cracking ever so slightly and grip tightening around Trini. The silence is suddenly heavy, and Trini squeezes her arm immediately, nuzzling her face further into Kimberly’s neck in an attempt to comfort her.

Kimberly clears her throat, pressing her cheek into Trini’s hair for a moment before pulling away just far enough that she can see her face.

“I think I’ll probably be able to stop the water from rushing against you like that, and if you keep your leg close, the brace can probably handle the rest of it. What do you think?”

Trini looks up at her hesitantly. Her uninjured hand still holding onto Kimberly’s arm, bunching up the material of her sleeve as her fingers flex, and Trini’s heart starts to thud, pulse pounding dully in her ears.

She looks beautiful, is all Trini can think as she watches the light play over Kimberly’s face. Even in the wonky cave light that tends to make them all look washed out and sallow, Kimberly is stunning. She still has dirt smudged on her face from their excursion of cave thrashing and her hair is a disheveled mess, but her eyes are bright as ever, watching her with concern.

She hears the guys speaking, but she can’t understand what they’re saying. Kimberly blinks and seems to look behind her in slow motion, gaze going somewhere over her shoulder, and Trini gets absorbed in the line of her jaw and the smooth skin of her neck.

When Kimberly looks down and meets her eyes again, Trini remembers the question. “Yeah,” she answers shakily, “Yeah, I think that’ll work.” She flushes, suddenly feeling panicky and surrounded on all sides. 

Maybe there is more to the morphing grid mind link Trini keeps hearing about, because at that exact moment Jason gives her a kind smile and takes a step back. 

“Alright, I’ll go get my truck and try to bring it closer to the base of the mountain so you don’t have so far to go once you get up there.”

The others take that as their cue to move, and Trini nods her thanks. Jason jumps up, splattering water, and Kimberly reaches to wipe the few errant drops off of Trini’s face.

Trini stares at her with wide eyes, and Kimberly’s fingers finish wiping the water off her face, now just resting against her cheek.

This close together, Trini knows Kimberly can feel it when her breath catches, but something keeps her frozen. Kimberly’s arm is still around her waist, and Trini doesn’t know how to interpret the expression on her face. Kimberly is looking back at her, and time seems to stand still, something hanging in the air between them.

The silence is broken by Zack, sauntering towards them with his hands clasped behind his back. “So, this is basically like a slow dance at prom, right?”

“Zack, go with Jason,” Trini orders, tearing her eyes away to lean down and pick up her backpack, tossing it at him. He cackles but complies, following after Jason through the water. She keeps her face turned to the side, and doesn’t know why her heart is beating so quickly. Kimberly lets her draw back a little and retracts her hand, but Trini doesn’t look up again.

Thankfully, that’s when Billy chooses to speak, giving Trini a reason to look over her shoulder.

“You feeling okay, Trini?”

A small smile spreads across her face and she gives him a nod. “Yeah, thanks Billy.”

“Okay. Kim? Can you cover her on your own or do you want me to help?”

“I think I can do it.”

He nods. “I’m gonna go first then, in case you need help slowing your landing on the other side. Crashing onto the cliff will definitely hurt if you land too hard.” He points at them with both hands and nods assuredly, stepping to the middle of the cavern. Trini gives him a grateful smile, and he waves at her before jumping.

Now they’re alone again, and it takes everything Trini has to meet Kimberly’s eyes.

Noting her hesitation, Kimberly only tilts her head to the side and smiles softly. “Time to go,” she tells her, nodding upwards, and Kimberly raises her eyebrows in a way Trini knows is her way of making sure everything is okay.

In response, Trini steps closer, letting Kimberly wrap her arm more firmly around her waist. With her forehead resting against Kimberly’s collarbone, Trini nods once and takes a deep breath, closing her eyes.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess who's gonna make their move! !!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this was by far the toughest chapter to write, although by all rights it really shouldn't have been.
> 
> Anyways, thank you so much for reading this far, and for all your wonderfully kind words! It means more to me than anything can describe, I will love you forever. The ending didn't quite come out the way I wanted, but I hope it doesn't disappoint. With that said, I guess I bid you farewell until next time!

“Thanks, guys,” Trini says tiredly as she leans back against the headboard, feeling the exhaustion weighing her down. The ride back to her house hadn’t been the most comfortable, despite the team’s best efforts, and she was more than ready to pass out for at least a day. They all offer her a couple parting words, and one by one leave out the window.

Except Kimberly.

“Kim?”

The rumble of Jason’s truck fades as it drives away, and Kimberly stays where she is, standing by the foot of Trini’s bed with a determined look on her face.

“You don’t want to go home?”

Kimberly shakes her head, hair fluttering around her face. “I’m not leaving you alone.”

“Kim, seriously, I’ll be fine. I’m literally just going to bed.” It’s strange to see Kimberly so withdrawn. She’s never been afraid to make herself completely at home in Trini’s room, and usually by now she’d at least be sitting on the bed with her, leaning into her side or holding her hand. Trini’s gotten used to her there, an arm around her shoulders and her warmth pressing against her.

“What if you need to get something?” Kimberly says stubbornly, crossing her arms. “What if you fall off the bed in the middle of the night, or have to pee, or get hungry and want a snack – ”

“Alright, alright,” Trini rolls her eyes, not putting too much effort into being exasperated, “Fine, I’ll let you stay.”

Kimberly scoffs, bending down to unlace her boots. “Sure, _let_ me. We both know if you kicked me out I would climb right back in when you fell asleep.”

“You realize how creepy that sounds, right?” Trini shifts on the bed, using her hands to lift her leg with the brace and settle it higher on the covers so she can lean back properly. “Like, that’s probably crossing some limit of acceptable clinginess.”

“Well, abnormal codependency and lack of boundaries comes with the territory, I’m afraid. Price you pay for the superpowers and the team, Trini.” Kimberly stands to put her hands on her hips, trying to fix Trini with a faux stern look but not able to suppress the smile playing on her lips.

Trini grins back, lopsided and maybe just a little bit smitten. “Okay, I changed my mind, I’m out. I don’t want to be a Power Ranger with you guys anymore. You’re annoying.”

“Well, tough, because I’m not going anywhere. Guess it’s a good thing you already love me.”

Trini freezes, eyes shooting up to meet Kimberly’s equally stricken gaze. Quick as a flash Kimberly’s face is blank, but Trini suddenly feels her pulse pounding in her ears. There’s silence as Kimberly hesitates for a moment, hands at her sides, and Trini prays she decides to just let it go. She isn’t prepared to have this confrontation with her, and she needs to be prepared or else she’s going to panic and ruin everything.

The window is still open, and Kimberly stands with Trini’s white curtains fluttering at her back, hair ruffling around her face in the gentle night breeze. Trini is grateful for the fresh air in her room, and from the way Kimberly rolls her shoulders, Trini knows she is too.

She slowly moves to sit on the edge of the bed, just within Trini’s reach. Her thinking face is clearly still on, the one that comes out when Kimberly is carefully weighing what she wants to say, but Trini can’t decipher it this time. Trini can feel the brush of her fingers, hovering just above her ankle, and Kimberly’s indecision is obvious.

Unbidden, Trini tilts her braced foot to the side, her toes gently nudging Kimberly in the hip. Kimberly takes the hint and places her hand down lightly on Trini’s shin, though she still doesn’t speak. The silence is palpable, and Trini waits with baited breath, unsure if she wants to reach out or draw back as far as she can.

“…I mean us.” Kimberly finally says, “You already love _us_ , all of us. We’ve established this already, but we all love each other.” She takes a shuddering breath and drops her shoulders. “We love you, and none of us want to see you get hurt. Got it?” Kimberly prompts her by poking a finger at Trini’s chest, waiting for her nod before lifting her hand and flicking her in the forehead. Trini reels back, an offended look on her face, and Kimberly laughs at her, rising and taking off her jacket.

“Look, Trini, I know why you did it, and I know we’d all do it for each other a hundred times over, but please… I don’t want to see you get hurt again. I don’t – ” She breaks off and squeezes her hands, scrunching her jacket up for a moment before she catches herself and smoothes it out. She’s the perfect picture of hesitation, and Trini grasps at the material of her blanket, holding it tightly as she tries not to move her injured arm. Her throat is dry and her leg is itching right behind the knee, and she doesn’t know what she wants to happen right now, but it all hinges on the girl standing in front of her.

Kimberly takes a slow breath, inhaling and exhaling before moving again. She drapes her jacket over Trini’s desk chair, now standing in just her dumb hipster tank top and leggings, and Trini feels her lips lifting in an involuntarily smile at the sight. Kimberly returns the smile with a small one of her own, and Trini thinks that might be the only reason she’s still holding on to her last remote shred of composure right now. Even now, one step away from falling out of her skin, she feels safe with Kimberly.

Trini tilts her head, waiting for her to finish, but feels the inexplicable urge to reach out and grab her hand. Actually, considering most of her waking state includes her wanting to be close to Kimberly in some way, maybe not so inexplicable.

“I… Because I…” Kimberly trails off, turning her head in the direction of Trini’s newly plastered wall. It hasn’t been painted yet, and Trini knows the contrast is a little jarring. “I’m…”

Trini unconsciously holds her breath as Kimberly deliberates, watching her wrap her arms around herself, and Trini presses her lips together, waiting anxiously until Kimberly moves again.

Coming closer, she sits on the edge of the bed again next to Trini’s extended leg, immediately shifting to face her. “Look, when I saw the wall come down…” She blows out a breath and shakes her head a little bit, reaching over for Trini’s hand, and Trini accepts the touch, grasping back. “You weren’t in your armour, and I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but you’re like, _small_. Really, really small,” she tries to say it with a teasing grin but the words fall flat, and Trini is confused. “The whole thing fell, and you were just… crushed.” She shakes her head. “And I know you’re fully capable of taking care of yourself, I _know_ that. But… it scared me.” Kimberly gives a watery laugh while the fingers on her other hand flex against her thigh, and Trini wants to hold those too.

Her words wash over her, and the realization hits Trini like the train had the day they found the power coins. Trini hadn’t known that Kimberly had been _scared_ – not just scared, but _really_ scared – and she feels like an idiot for not having noticed it before. Trini watches her carefully now, wondering how she missed it. Kimberly really had been worried about her, and Trini feels bad for not doing more to reassure her.

“Anyways, that’s… yeah. I’m really glad you’re okay.” Kimberly smiles softly at her and pats her knee above the brace, standing. “I’ll get you your pyjamas.”

Maybe she’s just tired past the point of rational thought, or maybe something in Kimberly’s eyes is enough encouragement to take the chance, but either way, here, propped up bloody and bruised and exhausted, is where Trini finally says something.

“Um… Hey, Kim?”

“Hm?”

“I – I was wondering…” she promptly forgets how to form words, but Kimberly waits, a hint of curiosity shining through on her face. Trini’s eyes stay locked on her, mouth opening but no sound coming out.

“Yes?” Kimberly prompts her, and Trini doesn’t let herself believe her tone is hopeful.

Outside, a dog barks and a car door slams, a foreground to cicadas singing and leaves rustling in the breeze, and Trini struggles to drag her focus back. Kimberly is watching her, completely distracting like she always is, and Trini takes a deep breath and forges onwards, the only way she knows how.

“Would you… maybe wanna go on a date some time? With me. Because I – you’re really – the, I mean, I…” Trini feels the tips of her ears burning red as she drops her gaze to her foot and keeps stuttering, the words tripping over each other in her haste to get them out.

Eventually she just bites her lip to stop talking, steeling herself and lifting her head. If Kimberly’s trying to figure out how to let Trini down easy, she’ll be okay, Trini keeps repeating to herself. It might be awkward for a bit – Trini _hates_ awkward – but they’ll be okay.

Kimberly is staring at her again, and Trini shrinks back, her resolve disappearing immediately.

“You know what? Never mind, forget all of that, it’s nothing,” Trini starts to babble, regretting every moment of her life that has led her to this particular situation. “Sorry for yanking your chain like that, you can leave now. You know where the door is! It’s the window actually, and it’s right there, so you can go through it, and I’ll see you tomorrow and we can just pretend this never happened.” Trini mentally curses herself for picking the one time she can’t run away to try spilling her guts. “I’m also like, high on whatever alien painkillers Alpha had in the ship, so probably totally loopy right now, you know how it is.” She chuckles nervously, the sound bordering on hysterical even to her own ears, and her heart is beating out of control. Trini needs to get back into her comfort zone, and she needs to get back now.

But then Kimberly says something that throws Trini even more off-balance.

“Okay.”

Trini stops and blinks. “…Okay?”

“Yeah, okay.” A slow smile is stretching across Kimberly’s face, shining brilliantly in the faint moonlight coming through the window. Trini definitely isn't breathing, and oh no, this is absolutely not the time for her lungs to stop working.

“Okay what?” She asks carefully, face twisted unsurely.

Kimberly rolls her eyes, but if anything her smile is getting wider. “Trini, _yes_. I want to go on a real date with you. The romantic kind. Together. Because I like you.”

“You… like me?” Trini repeats slowly, not able to force her brain back into action.

“Yes, doofus.” Kimberly steps closer, still smiling prettily, but Trini can only stare at her dumbly.

“But why?”

“Trini, please. I’ve been flirting with you for months.” Kimberly’s expression is pained, a mix of amusement and exasperation, and Trini really wishes her head wasn’t pounding right now.

“What? No,” she shakes her head, brow furrowed. Her hair falls into her face, but Kimberly’s hand is already there before she can react, gently pushing it back and tucking it around Trini’s ear. Her fingers curl loosely and brush against her cheek, and her gaze softens affectionately as her eyes rove Trini’s face.

“You are _so dense_. I was dropping the most obvious hints, I can’t believe you never caught on.”

Trini starts, surprise finally snapping her out of it. “I – what? …Flirting?”

Kimberly is still cupping her face in her hands, and after a moment where Trini continues to stare at her, she gives a disbelieving laugh. “Should I – do you want me to start listing?!”

Trini sputters, wracking her brain for any indications in her memory, and now Kimberly really does laugh, the sound clear and happy.

“Trini, all those times I asked you for help with biology? It’s like the oldest trick in the book!” She starts ticking them off on her fingers. “I brought you food, you’ve seen me in literally every tank top I own, because let’s face it, I look great in them. I walk you to class. We’ve been on tons of coffee dates, and ice cream dates, and a couple movie dates, honestly. Dinner dates too.”

She sees Trini’s blank look and shuffles closer, looking both incredulous and amused. “All our outings around town, all the coffee dates? Did they really seem platonic to you? Because I was really trying, you know. I brought you flowers that one time, Trini. _Flowers_. Does that scream platonic?”

Trini is still struggling, trying to figure out where this new information fits into the existing frame of her mind. “Wha – I – we go on outings all the time. All of us. The team,” Trini sputters, not able to wrap her head around it.

Kimberly raises an eyebrow at her. “I did that cheesy yawn and stretch thing at the movies so I could put my arm around your shoulders!”

Thinking back, Trini does remember her doing that. Coincidentally, she also doesn’t remember anything about the movie they were watching.

“This is… true?” Trini asks uncertainly, and Kimberly nods, giving her another gentle smile. She lets her mull it over, and eventually Trini blinks up at her. “Why didn’t you ever… say anything?!”

“I was waiting for you to make your move. Trying to be, like, patient.” Kimberly waves her hand through the air vaguely. “The old me would have marched right up to you and announced it, but I don’t want to be the old me. And I didn’t want to push you.” Her expression is soft, and the words are so gentle Trini couldn’t take offense in them if she tried. “I – there was – I mean – it’s important that you… I know how much it matters to you, figuring things out yourself.”

Trini stares at her, amazed, and Kimberly tucks her hair behind her ear, glancing down. She shifts on her feet, and it’s the first unsure sign Trini’s seen since she started this conversation.

“Although you’re kind of clueless, which I really wasn’t counting on,” Kimberly starts to ramble, addressing her shoes, and Trini’s heart swells, so full it feels like it could burst. Trini hesitates for a moment, and before she can talk herself out of it she lifts her hand. Taking a deep breath, she willfully ignores the way it’s trembling and slowly reaches forward to lay it on Kimberly’s arm.

Kimberly looks up at her and gives her a smile, small and secret and so shy, and Trini blinks, because the expression very unlike her. Her skin is soft and smooth to the touch, and Trini slides her hand around to circle her wrist, the night air quiet around them. Without knowing what she’s doing, Trini lightly tugs on her wrist, pulling her forward. Kimberly complies willingly, sitting on the bed again directly in front of her.

“Kim,” she murmurs quietly, and Kimberly hums in response. She doesn’t know if she’s leaning closer, or if Kimberly is, but suddenly they’re kissing, and all she knows is Kimberly.

“Oh my god, I’ve been waiting ages for this to happen,” Kimberly gasps, and then she’s kissing her again, bruising and deep and everything Trini could have ever dreamed of.

Trini doesn’t feel it happening, but suddenly Kimberly is sitting in her lap, knees bracketing her hips and carefully keeping her weight away from her leg. Trini gasps into the kiss, which Kimberly takes full advantage of, and Trini’s eyes slide shut.

What could be hours later, her nose bumps against Kimberly’s and Trini winces at the reminder that it’s still sort of broken.

“I’m so sorry,” Kimberly says breathlessly, pulling away and moving her hand from Trini’s waist to stroke her fingertips across the bridge of Trini’s nose, more for the sake of touching than anything else. “I forgot, we should stop before it hurts you more – ”

“I literally don’t care,” Trini tells her just as breathlessly, “I don’t – oh my god, I really don’t care.” She stares at Kimberly with an awed expression, too dazed to feel stupid about it.

Kimberly laughs quietly and leans her forehead against Trini’s, “Okay, well I care, so,” she quickly ducks down to press one last kiss to Trini’s lips before pulling away, “We are going to – to slow this down, and you are going to sleep, and then tomorrow you can tell me all about the date you’re going to take me on.”

Trini whines, a sound that she’s attributing completely to the head injury and subsequent painkillers, and Kimberly runs her hand through her hair again, the motion reassuring.

“We’ll have time for this later, I promise.”

“Or we have time for this now?” Trini looks up hopefully, keeping her hands where they are, one curving around Kimberly’s waist and one behind her neck.

It’s only when Kimberly puts her hand on Trini’s cheek and strokes along her cheekbone with her thumb that Trini realizes she’s pouting, and she hastens to pull her lip back and arrange her face into a more neutral expression. She closes her eyes and turns her face into Kimberly’s palm.

“You’re still staying over though, right?” Trini looks up at Kimberly through her lashes, not sure if she can bear Kimberly leaving her alone right now. At this point she knows she’s overtired, and that combined with the dull throbbing state of her body as well as her recent emotional gymnastics is not the recipe for a good night’s sleep.

However, the elation from Kimberly agreeing to go on a date with her hasn’t faded, and Trini doesn’t particularly want to let her out of her sight yet. Kimberly’s weight is pressing down on her is comforting, and Trini thinks her presence might be one of the only things in this world to make her feel truly safe.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. It’s late, and I like it when you’re here. Makes my room… better.” Trini keeps her eyes trained on Kimberly’s jaw, unable to look higher and meet her eyes, “Besides, I trust you, and… apparently I’ve already wasted a whole bunch of time, so I have no real intention of letting you go anytime soon.”

Kimberly’s lips twitch as she holds back a laugh, and she presses another kiss to Trini’s cheek. “Well, I’ll make sure to be extra clear next time I want you to notice something. Exaggerate it, you know, be completely direct. No more subtlety. Hey, maybe I’ll even make a PowerPoint presentation, would that be obvious enough for you?”

Trini narrows her eyes good-naturedly. “You making fun of me, Hart?”

Kimberly laughs, and she’s still laughing when Trini drags her down and kisses her again, smiling the whole time.


End file.
